Zipping a file

[SPKmes]

Can you guys help me understand this...Whenever I try to zip a file of pics to email I follow the instructions and it compresses but then I notice that the file size is basically the same...the only difference is that instead of telling you the size in Mb's it shows it as kb's...and from what I can ascertain the Kb's = the Mb's so in essence I'm thinking that it hasn't actually done a damn thing...very frustrating when I need to send a file of pics to a client but can only do it a couple at a time....Is this actually a smaller file or am I holding my mouth wrong when I click the tabs and not actually compressing anything (It does save with the little book icon)

[The Fugitive]

Some thing just don't compress well. Pictures have a lot of detail so there isn't much wiggle room when it comes to compression.

To get the file size down there are a couple of things you can do. Remember that some of these will hurt the quality of the pictures.

Save it in a different format. A picture in a bmp format is much larger than the same picture in a jpeg format.

Cut back on the colors, some picture don't NEED to be a million colors. Web picture can often get by at 256

What are you trying to do with the pictures? If your trying to zip them and email them to someone, you could up-load them to photobucket and then have "who ever" download them from there.

Or you could make the large zip file and upload it to a storage place on the web like Myfreefilehosting.com

[Tigger29]

Also keep in mind that 1MB = 1000KB, so a file that is... say.. 12.3MB in size is the same as 12,300KB in size.

Also depending on what zip software you use you may or may not be able to select the level of compression.

But like what Fugitive said.. pictures often don't compress well.

[SPKmes]

Ok...cheers guys...I never even thought to put them to photobucket etc.. They are photos of buildings...usually the bad bits so I do need to try to keep as much detail as possible...Most often I print them and drop them into clients but some need to sent by E-mail....So a file sharer is what I'll do....man...Why I didn't think to do that earlier...what a freakin idiot   

As for the software..it is just your basic winzip...I have tried 7zip also....

[nrshida]

A typical jpeg file is already compressed. Zipping a previously compressed file (of any type) usually won't save you much storage space and in special cases could actually make the zip file larger than the original. Normal bitmaps are uncompressed that's why the same image is considerably larger in that format.

[Ghastly]

{snip} Whenever I try to zip a file of pics to email {snip}

Another thing to bear in mind is that when you email a binary file, it's transmitted size is roughly twice that of the original binary.  This can cause no end of confusion when someone says for example  "Our limit on email is 500 MB" and yet your email with a 360 MB attachment keeps gets bounced.

<S>

[SPKmes]

Another thing to bear in mind is that when you email a binary file, it's transmitted size is roughly twice that of the original binary.  This can cause no end of confusion when someone says for example  "Our limit on email is 500 MB" and yet your email with a 360 MB attachment keeps gets bounced.

<S>

ahhhhhhhh....I didn't know that...

Cheers for your help guys