Attachments are Pixelating in Mac Mail

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Attachments are Pixelating in Mac Mail

When I attach a document to my mail message, it pixelates so it's unreadable. Attachments never used to do this.... this is a new phenomena... which makes me think I must have changed some preference. I looked at mail preferences and other areas... but have been unable to determine the cause. This happens when I either directly drag the attachment into the draft email and/or when I go to the file menu, scroll down and click on attach file. It even happens with zipped files. The document, say a photoshop document that I've saved as a jpeg with a resolution of 100 (which reads fine on the screen), will become the size of a postage stamp and pixelate beyond recognition when attached to the email.

I used to create a photoshop document, convert the file to "save for web" and drag it to the email draft... and all would be well. Now it just pixelates when attached.

any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

G4, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Sep 28, 2010 8:56 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

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Sep 28, 2010 12:13 PM in response to bocode

Hi bocode, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂

Hmmm, are this pics residing in iPhoto, or been touched by iPhoto in some way?

What happens if say you load the pic in Photoshop, Select All, Copy, then paste into the body of the Mail?

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Answer 2

bocode Author

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Sep 28, 2010 2:31 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi

The files I'm attaching are not necessarily from iPhoto. Mostly photoshop files (sometimes jpeg sometimes psd. files) that I used to convert to "save for web"..... when I try to do that now, and when attached, they become very pixelated. They never did that... the files use to attach nicely, with no pixelation. I'm not sure why they are so pixelated now... a mystery. The file on the desktop is fine, when I attach to the mail draft, it gets pixelated.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

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Sep 28, 2010 3:04 PM in response to bocode

Open one in PS & try the copy & paste I mentioned above to see if we can narrow this down.

I think it's putting the icon for the pic in instead of the pic itself.

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Answer 4

bocode Author

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Sep 29, 2010 7:28 AM in response to bocode

What you mentioned, that mail may be trying to attach the preview (icon image) I thought sounded good...that maybe that is what the problem could be.

I took an image (856kb, so a fairly small image size) opened it in photoshop and it looked fine. While in photoshop I copied it and pasted into the mail document. It pixelated. So this makes me think the mail program (mac mail) is doing something the image when it's placed in the mail message.

Any other thoughts? Thanks again for the help.

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Answer 5

BDAqua

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Sep 29, 2010 7:16 PM in response to bocode

If you double click on that small pic, does it open full size in Preview or whatever you have set to open them?

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Answer 6

bocode Author

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Sep 30, 2010 3:39 AM in response to BDAqua

When the image is on the desktop, I double click on it, the image opens fine.... is readable and not pixelated.

When the image is in the mail document, I double click on it, it opens and is totally pixelated, and basically unreadable.

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Answer 7

BDAqua

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Sep 30, 2010 8:21 AM in response to bocode

Hmmm, on one of those on the Desktop, do a get info, highlight it's icon at the top left & paste in a different icon, drag that pic with the changed icon to Mail, is it the pic or the icon showing?

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Answer 8

bocode Author

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Sep 30, 2010 8:33 AM in response to BDAqua

I took one of the photoshop jpegs and pasted in a different image for the icon. When I attach that file to a mail document, the image in the PS file shows up, not the icon image.

I still think the mail program is doing something to the image... just not sure what is happening.

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Answer 9

BDAqua

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Sep 30, 2010 8:45 AM in response to bocode

Yes, it would appear so. 😟

To see if it's system wide or not, make a new Admin user in Accounts, try Mail in that account.

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Answer 10

bocode Author

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Oct 2, 2010 4:03 AM in response to BDAqua

Well.... I finally figured out what the problem is (was). When a file is attached to the mail document in the lower right corner of the mail draft is a drop down menu which allows you to change the size of the attached file (small, medium, large or actual size). My setting somehow got set to small... thus the pixelating. Thanks for your help....

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Answer 11

BDAqua

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Oct 2, 2010 10:39 AM in response to bocode

Good work, thanks for the report! 🙂

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Answer 12

mrbike

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Nov 24, 2010 8:48 PM in response to bocode

Hi,

Thanks for that. Would you be able to explain with more detail how you saved the problem? I think I am having the same problem you did.
Thanks
mrbike

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Answer 13

BDAqua

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Nov 24, 2010 9:28 PM in response to mrbike

Hi mrbik, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂

I think the red arrow in this pic is what they're referring to

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Answer 14

Mogaan

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Jan 10, 2011 1:59 AM in response to bocode

A great discussion, the problem diagnosis is spot on ! I had the same problem and this post saved me from the headache 🙂

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