Problems with Mail converting JPG files to JPEGs

I do understand what you're saying - JPG vs JPEG being the same. We do tend to get a lot of JPG picture files to start from and not Tiff files which for our print uses typically works fine. These are magazine size ads so not blown up to be very large but still need decent quality to start from.

I'm not quite sure how to explain it but I'll do my best. I received a file last evening that was 4.444 inches wide x 2.972 inches high at 72 dpi (this was the .jpeg file). Today, via the use of dropbox I received the original JPG file with dimensions of 23.583 inches wide x 15.708 inches high at 72 dpi. Obviously a much larger file.

Now my client received from his client the original JPG (the 23.583 inches wide x 15.708 inches high at 72 dpi file). My client simply hit forward in his mail program with the same attachment, he never changed anything, but when I received it last evening, it no longer said .JPG but instead .JPEG and it was the smaller (4.444 inches wide x 2.972 inches high at 72 dpi) file. Its quite frustrating because we're not sure what to do to solve this problem.

Unfortunatley though many of our clients do not supply tiff files. The vast majority of what we get from our client's to start from is a JPG. I'm just trying to see if we can figure out how/why once my client forwards to me what he receives, why its compressing the file when the file itself has never been opened/resaved/etc.

It appears the email client is compressing the size some how. And they've not been large files so I'm not sure why it would be doing so. Like for example, the image I spoke of previously in this thread is a 1.9 MB JPG file. But when I received it last night, Mail had compressed it to a 33 KG JPEG file.

The gentleman that sends me the ad copy to work from, most often he is simply forwarding (in Apple's Mail application) the email he received from his customer. I'm currently running OS 10.6.8 (yes I need to update) but it doesn't give me the "Actual Size" option or any of the others you mentioned. I have a box near the bottom when I compose a new message where I can send a Windows Friendly Atttachment.

I'm not sure which version of OS my client is operating but I can find out. His may be a bit newer than mine as he just recently switched to a Mac platform from PC.

Thanks everyone. From the sounds of it, dropbox may just be our best option at this point. I'm think all this started when my client that sends me files, got his Mac. lol. We just needed to figure out what to do to ensure I'm getting the best files possible to start from.