Graphic question

Framar

WOW Framer
Joined
Jul 24, 2001
Posts
26,420
Loc
Buffalo, New York, USA/Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada
No, guys, not that graphic! I bought my computer system so I could create art on it. This I have been merrily doing, since I stumbled onto the Corel Photohouse2000 program, buried deep in the bowels of my system. For months I had been struggling with the Ulead Photo Express program, hating every inch of it, except for the part that sez "share" which is how I managed, thanks to Ron, to get that blurry photo of the Framaree onto the G.

Now, as far as I am able to determine, unaided, my system has 32MB, 66% free. I have been filing a lot of altered photos lately. Should I have my computer guy add more memory, should I just store the stuff on floppies, or should I uninstall the Ulead program, to free up space?????

This is a Dell Optiplex gs, whatever that means, and I am running windows 95. Would I still have a way to "share" photos or art without that Ulead thingy?

I figure floppy discs are cheaper than memory, and I would hate to have to unplug all 400 cords and be without my Grumble to have the work done. And since customers have been scarce lately, a new system is out of the question.

Thanks, I am looking forward to your expert opinions on this matter. My house is a goldmine of old photos and collage material and artwork, and I can see myself doing a lot of computer art, cause I love the random factor! I will share some of this art someday..... ;)
 
You need to install a CD burn program so you can move your photo file off the computer hard drive on to CD's .
Most photo files are to large for 3.5 disks. The only way to get them on disk is to zip the files, but you lose alot of information. I use PhotoShop 7 and most of my files are over 20 megs of raw data.
 
There is a notable difference between Memory and Storage space. Think about Memory, which is often referred to as RAM, as being the space on your desk. It's the stuff you're working on right now. When you go home you put everything away, and when you come back you get it out again (Right!, right?) Storage, which is on your Hard Drive, or can be on floppies, CDs, etc, is like your filing cabinet. It's where you store the work you've done, and where you get it from when you want to look at it or work on it some more (on your desk).

Windows 95 with 32 MB of memory is OK, but 64 would be better, and probably not that expensive depending on what kind it is.

The other question is how much free space you have on your hard drive. Unless you are getting error messages about not having enough free space, you have not run out of storage space. However, as William Ross said, graphics can take up a lot of space, so you may be running out soon. Also, if you are letting Windows manage your virtual memory (a place on your hard drive that it treats as memory), your virtual memory may be at a less than optimum size because of the amount of space available to it if your hard drive is getting full; this would result is a performance sloowdaoown.

To find out how musc space you have, open My Computer (that's YOUR "My Computer, NOT my "my Computer ;), Right-Click on Drive C and select Properties. You should get a graphic representation of your hard drive with a percentage and amount of used and free space. Being an Optiplex with 95 you probably have a 2 or 4 GB hard drive. If you have 500 MB free you're fine, but may run out soon if you're planning on a lot of graphics work. If you have less than 100 MB free you are pushing your luck. This is where uninstalling Ulead will help, as well as any other programs you no longer use and have no intention of using.

If you find that you can't free up enough space you can almost certainly add another hard drive. Though it may sound daunting, this is a relatively simple task, and almost anyone can do it given proper instructions.

It is possible you already have a second drive, though it's unlikely. If so, you will see, in addition to Drive C, Drive D with the same type of icon and description in your My Computer. If this is the case, you can find out how much free space this one has the same way! Now if you do have a second hard drive showing in My Computer and both are running low on space, don't despair. It's possible that the second hard drive is merely a separate partition on the single hard drive. This was done in the early days because of the addressing limitations of some operating systems. You can find out how many physical hard drives you have by watching the Power On Self Test messages when the computer starts up, or going into the BIOS setup by pressing (some key) during setup. An Optiplex should have room for 2 or 3 physical hard drives.

As for sharing your artwork, Ulead may have some routine that makes it easy, but as long you save files in a format readable by your intended recipient you can share them. JPEG files are readable by virtually anyone and the most common format for high color photographs and similar type work.

How do you want to share the pictures? JPEG files can be attached to or inserted into an email message, or uploaded to a web server for viewing in a browser.

Are you completely confused now? :confused:

Please ask if you need further clarification.
 
If you're still running windows 95, my guess is your computer may not handle a CD burner. Be sure to read the system requirements on the package of the burner. Checkout TDK CD Burners. An inexpensive route would be to add an Iomega Zip Drive. They make two models, 100MB and 250MB. Easy to install, LPT port then your printer runs through the ZIP Drive. Like having another hard drive. Cost of 250MB-External Parallel from PC Connection PC Connection is $119.95. Else check out Best Buy if you have one near you. Or Buy.com

Good Luck,
Denny
 
Right click!!! I always forget about right clicks. That's the good news. The bad news is I have .98GB, with 167MB free. Eek!!!

The artwork I am doing averages about 3" square. I can't seem to determine how much space this takes up.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my endless queries!!!!
 
You should have enough storage space to handle that size image.

Hat to do this to you but right click ;) on your image and click on "properties" and it should tell you in bytes how large your image is. Divide that by 1000 to figure the kilobytes of the image.

Framerguy
 
Yippee!!! Got rid of Ulead and gained an extra 100MB!!!! Spent all evening organizing my storage. Wish real storage problems could be handled as easily as virtual storage...

Thanks for the help, now I have a lot to think about...
 
I just thought of another question, for the graphics experts out there. What if I were to save pix in a small size, such as 2" x 3" as opposed to 7" x 9" - would I still be saving the same amount of information, so I could enlarge pictures in the future and still save space now?

Am I still getting the same number of pixels in a small picture as a large one?? I do notice that as I resize pictures the number of kilobytes goes up and down. This way I could put more stuff on a floppy disc for now, until I acquire more memory or storage (?) or a zip drive or whatever.

Mind you, even though I have put all my stuff on floppies, I am somehow reluctant to delete them off of the computer. Learning a whole new way of thinking is tough at this age!!!

Thanks again for the input!
 
If you think you are ever going to use a graphic in the original size again do NOT reduce it without first saving a copy of the original, and call the small one picture_s or some such thing.

Yes, you can make it smaller and bigger again, but you lose the detail in the process. Just try it on one your pics and see.
 
You might want to consider upgrading your operating system to a newer version. One way to increase memory is with an external hard drive attached by a firewire if your computer can support one. We use one for all the "scratch" that photoshop creates as it works (it is constantly saving and resaving things which can really mess up a hard drive.) You should still save all your finished work to an external disk and clean it off your computer's memory on a regular basis.
You might also want to try a program called Painter. I've seen people create art from photos on it that look like paintings. It works much smoother than Photoshop.

I'm now starting to get into our high school senior season and spending way too many hours some days retouching on the computer using photoshop 7. My fingers are stiff! :eek:
 
Here is a dumb question: How do you get the photos off of your hard drive? I have deleted them but I can still find them. Told you it was dumb!
 
Hi Kathy,

Normally your deleted "stuff" goes to the "Recycle Bin" where you can delete all the contents periodically.

Are you sure you didn't have those images saved in 2 different spots? Or saved the original and then made a copy smaller/larger to use somewhere else?

I would try deleting them again and then go to your "Recycle Bin" to see if they are there or not. They should show up there if you deleted them.

Now, if you didn't clean out your "RB", they are still on your hard drive. You have to clean out the bin to complete the "delete" process. If you did a "search" for those images before you emptied the bin, you would probably find them again in the "Recycle Bin". I haven't tried this but it seems like that would be the case. Usually, when I trash something I have no reason to search for it later.

Framerguy
 
Tom, I have emptied the recycle bin. I just know after I put all these photos on my zip drive Iwent through and right clicked on the images and deleted. They are no longer in my camera program but I find them listed in with my documents and with "My pictures" under "My Documents". Obviously sometning is askew. Maybe I did save them more than once, if I did it is beyond me why. Now you can get some sense why I'm not fully utilizing my Frameready program. I am not afraid of the computer but I never sat down and learned how to use it properly. Just flew by the seat of my pants. I guess I will just delete wherever I find those little photos till they are all gone.
 
Kathy,

What was the default folder in which you told your camera program to save all of the images that you wanted to save by clicking on "Save" or "Save As"? I don't mean the images that are still on your camera desktop. Those have to be deleted separately and simply by right clicking on them and choose delete while you are in the camera program.

When you save one of those images and click on File, Save, ....... what folder comes up in the little save window thingy?

I'll bet that it is either My Documents or My Pictures.

If that isn't the case step away from your computer and head for the closest exit! I will contact Terminator and we will be there in a few hours to deactivate the terrorist plot that was implanted into your computer to make you go "image mad"! It is an old tactic that I didn't think they used much anymore.

Stay calm and don't hit the "ESC" key until you hear from one of us. ;)

Omar
 
As long as I don't have to blame myself I'll be happy to blame it on a terrorist plot. Yeah, that's what happened. I was gonna blame it on some sort of gravitational pull or gamma rays but I think a terrorist plot is much more plausible. Not to mention if I have to evacuate I guess I can call it a day and go home..........I'm likin' this plot thing more and more...........
 
O, yes, they are resurrecting the old tricks. Gateway has imported Al Queda and Taliban to handle the problems I've had since I bought this boat anchor.
Now, they claim that the OS, which is XP, is causing it to hibernate. Told me I was gonna have to back up my 40G HD, and then reload my 'original' XP disc. Told 'em, "Uh-uh. The 'puter CAME with XP. It was part of the 'package' I bought from Gateway. Y'all can figure out how to fix it, not me. I ain't touching it."
So...they finally decided to ship a new HD, with the latest, greatest XP on it to the local Gateway store, when it gets there, they will call me, and I will schlepp it up there again, and they will replace the HD, and Xfer the files, at no charge.

Sorry. If anyone wants to know the whole, sad, Gateway story, I'll email you with detail. Bear in mind, it goes back to October. It'll take a while. All I can say is, "Gateway buyers, BEWARE!!!"

Sorry, Mar. Venting can be so good for the soul...
 
Some photo programs automatically save your photos in multiple places whether you want them to or not. We have one for making slide shows (Kais)that does that. Even if you delete a picture out of the show, it still shows up in the shows files. It does show up when you play the show, just clogging up the list of files. :rolleyes:
 
I have a question.
I don't know how to take an image from the 'net, and reduce the size. My computer has MGI Photo Suite and Paint, which doesn't seem to have much to do with photos.
I plan to buy a scanner really soon, and it comes with Photoshop.
Can I do what I want with MGI, or do I need to keep annoying Ron until I get something else?
 
There are many versions of Photoshop, some don't have all the bells and whistles. Photoshop 7 is the most complete of them and the newest version, but it's expensive if you don't have an earlier version to do an upgrade from (cheaper, but still costs.) Alot of scanners come with Photoshop LE (limited edition), often referred to as Photoshop light. It can do some things, but not all. If anyone has specific questions about Photoshop, email me and I'll put you in touch with Gary. He's becoming quite proficient in it. :cool:
 
Thanks, Anne! You're a dream! I will check and see what comes with this scanner, and let you know!

I really appreciate it!!
 
Originally posted by CharlesLowry:
Can I do what I want with MGI, or do I need to keep annoying Ron until I get something else?
Don't worry about it, Charles. You'll be annoying me whether you learn to resize photos or not.

I have MGI Photosuite around somewhere. Maybe I'll install it (or look at the manual) and see if I can unleash the picture-posting geek that I know you have in you.
 
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