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Author Topic: Apple software recommendations?  (Read 10,204 times)

oldfart

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Apple software recommendations?
« on: February 02, 2008, 05:13 PM »
Greetings,
I'm quite new to the forum and have been trying to read all the forum posts to catch up with things but I've come up with a question and can't find anything related in the forums.  My sister owns a Mac and a digital camera.  She likes to send around pictures she's taken but she sends the original image that is usually a meg or more in size, which isn't real convenient for some in the family that are still in dial-up mode.  I wrote her and suggested she convert the image to a more manageable size.  She said she doesn't have a program that will do that for her.  I went to Tucows and found a couple of free programs that got good user reviews but I thought I'd ask you folks that use Macs and see if you had some suggestions for her. 
She needs something fairly user friendly as she's not real computer literate.
Thanks for your help.
dmg

app103

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Re: Apple software recommendations?
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2008, 05:22 PM »
One of the easiest I have seen is Veign's Quick Thumbnail.

Select your file, pick your settings, click the button, save the new pic.

You don't even have to install it. How much easier can you get?

cmpm

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Re: Apple software recommendations?
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2008, 08:49 PM »
A list of free graphic programs for Macs.
I'm surprised that function isn't built into the OS.

http://www.freedownloadaday.com/category/macos-graphics/

Here's a few that work with Macs.

http://kstudio.net/re.html

http://www.rocketjam.com/scaletron.html

also, the Gimp works on Macs as well...

http://www.gimp.org/

oldfart

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Re: Apple software recommendations?
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2008, 09:05 PM »
Thanks for the quick response folks.  I copied your suggestions and sent them along to my sister.  I too was surprised that there wasn't an excellent image manager built in to the OS.  For all I know, there is and my sister just never found it.  She's a lovely lady with intelligence and wit, not to mention a beautiful singer but she's not real swift when it comes to computers.  She says the reason they bought a Mac is that its supposed to be stable and not crash as much as Windows.  Her last computer had Win98 so she's never tried XP.  [Her husband is a Mac addict.]
Hopefully this will solve her problem and I thank you once again.
dmg

Dormouse

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Re: Apple software recommendations?
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2008, 10:14 PM »
why not try a picasa web album - http://picasa.google.com/web/mac_tools.html

Mark0

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Re: Apple software recommendations?
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2008, 11:28 PM »
If I remember correctly, iPhoto can automatically resize a photo to a reasonable format when sending it it by mail - or is the Mail application that does it when you paste / attach a photo.

Bye!

nontroppo

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Re: Apple software recommendations?
« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2008, 01:44 AM »
Preview (the default image viewer) will resize and/or crop images in Leopard at least, and I've also heard that iPhoto and/or Mail can scale pictures down for you (I use neither, I prefer Adobe Lightroom with a passion for photos, and Opera for mail).

What I can *highly* recommend in terms of simplicity (yet buried power) is ImageWell:

http://xtralean.com/IWOverview.html

It has a really nice UI, simple resizing is available at the go, but there is a more advanced edit mode and functions. It is free.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2008, 01:47 AM by nontroppo »

oldfart

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Re: Apple software recommendations?
« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2008, 03:27 AM »
Boy am I embarrassed.  I use Picasa all the time.  I've got an older program that I use for conversion purposes and never even thought to check Picasa.  Thanks for the advice.
dmg

justice

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Re: Apple software recommendations?
« Reply #8 on: February 04, 2008, 07:26 AM »
If I remember correctly, iPhoto can automatically resize a photo to a reasonable format when sending it it by mail - or is the Mail application that does it when you paste / attach a photo.

Bye!
this is right, select the right photograph click on e-mail and it will ask you regarding size.

harmonv

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Re: Apple software recommendations?
« Reply #9 on: February 04, 2008, 09:53 AM »
Something else to keep in mind -- There are several graphics file formats and some are more efficient than others.
Try saving a few files in different formats and see which offers the best combination of image quality and small filesize.
Among Windows users the .PNG format seems to be the preferred choice.  Best of luck.  ;)

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