I'm confused by pictures

[mortaine]

So, I emailed pictures@ and got a bounce message saying my message was too big to post to a listserve. What's that about? I don't understand; is my picture too big for Cantr, or is it just how you manage the incoming pictures email?

[Anthony Roberts]

Images are only meant to be 70 KB in size to upload.

However, anything above... 30 KB or so, gets plugged by the moderation police. I don't have a definate size, but some e-mails get stuck. I can not personally see these e-mails until the gateway holder of the pictures e-mail address allows it through, as to why it can be a LONG delay to get your images, and that sucks, I know.

It's to help eliminate spam and viruses (As they have attachments and such) to protect Cantr's integrity, but it seems to create more problems than solve.

[mortaine]

I think there should be a wiki page on pictures, how big they should (not) be, how to mail them in, and why there can be a delay (I don't mind delays, as long as I know why there would be a reason for them). I looked and couldn't find anything when I was sending in the pic-- the only info I had was the message tacked to the top of the daily reports.

Thank you for answering my questions, though. I will re-do the picture tomorrow to be smaller, though I don't know if 30 KB is really possible. Is it OK to email you a link to the picture and have you download it?

[kinvoya]

I don't understand much about making pictures different sizes but I'm wondering about this. I've seen some huge, complex maps and pictures in game and some notes with multiple big maps on them. It sounds like 70kb isn't very much visual material so how are these able to be on notes?

Also, if I create a map in paint, because it's all I have (I know there is better free drawing software available but my comp can't handle any more stuff), how can I know if it's 70kb or not? I've only requested to have one picture put on a note and I was told it was too big even though it was tiny on my page. Is there some good sight that will make it have fewer kbs for me without loosing the quality (such as it is)?

[Surly]

Remember to save as a jpg, not a bmp.

Other than that... Anthony?

[Anthony Roberts]

I can talk about this.

Bitmaps (BMP) are files saved from Paint. These files are uncompressed and inefficient use of colours. Because of this, the size of the file is very large (Something small could still end up being a megabyte in size!) - JPG are layered images, where unused colours are removed from the palette, and the image is compressed using some strangeass ratio. JPG and JPEG files are much much smaller, and better, than BMP.

You can submit in any format you choose, as I can convert it, however please take in mind, if in BMP or a large image in any format, it WILL be delayed, as it'll probably get stuck in the filter for size waiting for it to get to me.

Maps in the game, however, you need to notice a few things. They may in fact be GIF format. This format is my favourite. Not only can you make animated pictures (Which won't be uploaded, mind you) but you can manually remove colours from the palette. So, those maps that you see, chances are have only 16 colours or so in them, but you can't really tell. The point is, all the unused colours were removed, so it makes the file size VERY small.

[mortaine]

JPEG is actually a pretty poor choice for an image you draw in Paint-- it's designed for photographic quality images, not bitmap art. Use GIF or PNG instead.

The other problem with BMP is that they don't show up in web browsers.

MS Paint with WinXP can save as a GIF or PNG file. Just select "Save As" in the File menu and use the drop-down to select "GIF."

There are also a number of free programs you can download and use to convert your BMP file to a usable format. Just search in Google for "Graphics File Converter for Windows."

Anthony, are PNG's permitted as well?

[west]

Can't see why they wouldn't be.

I love PNGs.

Also penguins.

[Anthony Roberts]

Yes, any format is accepted. BMP I'll convert without question. But again, any format, I'll convert it if you don't want to, because I can