Images attached to an Email automatically reduce in size

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Level 1

22 points

Images attached to an Email automatically reduce in size

I use Apple Mail v4.3 running on my Macbook Pro under Snow Leopard 10.6.4. I have a problem with images I attach to an email automatically becoming small when they are attached. I do not recall having this problem before upgrading to Snow Leopard, but it may have been there earlier.

When I attach an image to an email (by cut & past, dragging in to the email or using the Attachment button) the image gets reduced in size to something that is larger than a Thumbnail, but much smaller than the original image. This small size image is what gets sent with the email, and of course received by the recipient. This is true even for rather small images such as screen captures, which are only 50 - 100 kb to start with.

How do I turn this auto reduction off or control it so that it does not shrink images that are already small enough to email.

MacBook Pro 2.5Ghz, 4GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Jul 27, 2010 12:48 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 27, 2010 1:45 PM in response to LandyA

Here is what the Help file says about attaching images:

To attach a picture:
Add the picture to the message in one of these ways:
Click Photo Browser in the toolbar to view available images, and then drag an image into the message.
Drag a picture from your desktop, the Finder, iPhoto, or another application into the message.
Click the Attach button in the toolbar or choose File > Attach Files, and then select an image file.
Adjust the image size using the pop-up menu in the lower right of the window.
Mail inserts the picture in its actual size. This could cause the message to exceed limits set by your email provider. If the message size in the lower left of the window appears in red, choose a smaller size from the pop-up menu.
Drag the image to the place where you want it to appear in the message.
If a recipient is using Mail or another email application that retains the order of the contents of your message, the recipient sees the attachment in the same location where you inserted it.
You can select Edit > Attachments > “Always Insert Attachments at End of Message” to have attachments inserted at the end whenever you send a message with attachments, which may help Windows recipients.

Since it says that images are inserted in their original size, I'm wondering whether your images are rather small to begin with. If not, you can always resort to resizing them via the pop-up in the lower-right corner of the message. HTH. 🙂

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Answer 2

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,338 points

Jul 27, 2010 1:54 PM in response to LandyA

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

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Answer 3

LandyA Author

Level 1

22 points

Jul 28, 2010 7:46 AM in response to LandyA

Great, that helps a lot. I had not noticed the pull-down in the lower right before. Is there a way to change the default setting for the way images are included from "Small" to "Actual Size", so I only have to use the pull-down on those rare occasions where I want Apple Mail to do the size reduction for me? 95% of the time, I have already made the image the size I want to send.

Also, is there a way to select Small for some images and Large for others? Everything I have tired so far seems to effect ALL the images in the email.

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Answer 4

Jul 28, 2010 8:06 AM in response to LandyA

Landy, I'm wondering whether your resizing could be the source of the problem. Mail inserts images in their original (= what's in iPhoto) size, according to the Help file and my own experience. Why don't you try not resizing a photo and adding it to a message to see what happens?

As for setting some images to Small and others to Large, there's no way to do that automatically, AFAIK. How would Mail know which ones you wanted to resize? That's really why the drop-down list at the bottom is there. 🙂

Good luck! 🙂

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