jpg's are converted to bmp's in sent email

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jpg's are converted to bmp's in sent email

First. I apologize that this is somewhat off topic. I could not find a email topic.

Yesterday I tried to email some photos to the So. Cal. MLS.

I was sending them low resolution jpgs one at a time attached to separate emails.

According to them they were receiving "embedded" bitmaps. I don't even know what they mean by "embedded" how can anyone embed a photo into an email?

We are a printing and graphic design company so I send and receive dozens of emails with jpgs attached every week. On rare occasions others have told me they receive the attachments "embedded" into the emails. I then send zipped files and that works for them.

Can you explain what they may have meant by "embedded" and how were they converted to bmp?

When the MLS sent it back to me so I could see what they received, I received an attached jpg like normal and not a bitmap.

I am using Mail version 2.1.3 - under the edit / attachments menu I have selected "Send windows friendly attachments"

Thanks for any light you can shed on this problem.

g4, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Jul 12, 2008 2:44 PM

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Answer 1

Mulder

Level 6

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Jul 12, 2008 2:50 PM in response to jamesvlb

They probably mean "embedded" in the sense that the file displays in their mail client and it can't be saved to their hard drive (or at least they believe that to be true). But this could be caused by your sending single .jpg images and choosing to display them as icons in Mail, which does apparently convert them to another format when sending.

As an example, I sent a PDF file to a company recently and chose to display it in Mail as an icon rather than render the page. The recipient got a .gif file, even though that's not what I sent, and I had no notice that it would be converted beforehand.

I suggest you send all your files at once as a Zip archive and that way you won't have to be concerned about that happening, whether they're using a Windoze Pee Cee or a Mac.

Mulder

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Answer 2

jamesvlb Author

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Jul 12, 2008 3:24 PM in response to Mulder

Mulder, thank you for your reply.

I'm not sure I know what you mean "choosing to display them as icons" .... I don't make any choice that I am aware of. How does one make that choice?

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Answer 3

Mulder

Level 6

8,990 points

Jul 12, 2008 4:00 PM in response to jamesvlb

When you attach a file to an email, it will render in the window if it's a one-page item such as a .jpg or a single page PDF file. A popup menu will appear in the lower right of the message window that lets you choose the size --small, medium, large, and Actual Size (the default). At least in the case of a single page PDF, changing the size to anything smaller than Actual Size will cause a .gif file to be sent instead of the actual PDF, but you won't know it unless and until your recipient tells you.

So, I suspect that you sent a .jpg file to a Windoze Pee Cee user and selected something other than Actual Size, which caused them to receive a .bmp file. I have no way of knowing for certain, but my own experience tells me that this is a likely scenario.

Mulder

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Answer 4

jamesvlb Author

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Jul 13, 2008 10:09 AM in response to Mulder

Mulder-

I send PDF files every day and I never noticed that pop-up in the lower right.... amazing. Thanks for pointing that out. However that pop-up doesn't appear when sending jpgs and if it converts PDF files to gifs it seems almost useless - but at least I am now aware of the possibility.

I suspect that the conversion of jpgs to bmps has something to do with what email client they are using. But when I ask them that question they don't know and give me the impression that they think I am the worlds biggest geek. At times the answer has been "Windows".

Jim

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Answer 5

Mulder

Level 6

8,990 points

Jul 13, 2008 10:17 AM in response to jamesvlb

But when I ask them that question they don't know and give me the impression that they think I am the worlds biggest geek. At times the answer has been "Windows".

Typical answer from a Windows user who doesn't know how to read. That might explain why they get so many viruses: because they don't read what they're about to click on.

Mulder

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Answer 6

jamesvlb Author

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Jul 13, 2008 2:56 PM in response to Mulder

I, certainly, am not a programer or computer expert and I certainly don't hold myself out to be but I am constantly amazed by PC users that don't seem to know the most basic things about their computer usage.

Thankfully I am not a realtor - I was just doing a favor for a realtor client - and I don't have to deal with this the MLS on a daily basis.

But I have also had so many problems sending to AOL clients that I just don't even bother trying anymore without first putting attachments in a folder and zipping it. If I don't AOL strips the attachment off or converts it to a mime file. What's with that?

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