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Get the Picture! Sending Photos Online
If you've got a digitized photograph (or any graphic for that matter) and you need to send it to someone fast, you have several options.
- You could put the file on a disk and find someone with a Ferrari and a lead foot. But that could be dangerous and expensive.
- You could try an express delivery service. But that'll still take overnight (assuming they're not on strike!).
- OR, by getting on the information superhighway (the Internet), you can send your files almost anywhere on earth, almost immediately, for almost free.
Three Basic Ways to Send Graphics Online (from Best to Worst)
1. Send the graphic as an attachment to an email message. This can be as easy as using the "Attach File" command in your email program, or as complex as learning about something called encoding schemes. As simply put as possible, the email software for both the sender and the receiver must both support MIME format and use the same encoding scheme.
To avoid last minute nightmares if you have a deadline, try a test run beforehand. If it doesn't work, seek help from your Internet service provider (ISP) or your email program manufacturer. Remember, you can exchange files between different email programs and even between Macs and PCs, but the software needs to be compatible. For more info, check The Art of Attachments: How to Send Graphics via Email.
2. Upload to a website for FTP. If you have a website, you can set up a section of your site for downloads. Just as you might have downloaded software from some big commercial site, you can also upload your files to your own website, which allows users to receive the files in their original file format. The users cannot actually see these files online. They first download the file and then open it in a compatible graphics program. This uses a technique called FTP (file transfer protocol). Both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer support FTP.
3. Display on a web page for onscreen capture. If you have a website, you can insert your photo onto one of your web pages. The receiver then simply presses the mouse button down on the graphic and selects the "Save Picture As..." command (in Navigator). The computer saves a copy of the file on the receiver's hard disk as either a JPEG or GIF file. However, beware that even if you post high-resolution images (which will download slowly), they may still be received as low-resolution files (72 dpi).
This largely depends on the sender's and receiver's ISP. If you absolutely need to send a photo with a resolution higher than 72, use another method. For more on capturing images off the web, see Reach Out and Capture a Graphic from the Web in Idea Cafe's Fridge.
One caveat for any of these methods is that the receiver must have compatible software to open the particular format of the graphic file. The most common graphic formats are GIF, JPEG, BMP, PICT, and Photoshop. Most graphics programs will let you save your file in any of several different formats.
Well, as they say, IGSATBA (I'm getting sick of all of these bleeping acronyms), so I hope you get the picture, and I'll see you on the Internet.
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