I've read the DTP instructions about pixels and aspect ratio over and over again... and still can't make sense of them. Following those instructions to a T ... or a pixel.... doesn't work for me. Images upload ok, but are distorted or the wrong size. I even went to a PhotoShop Elements forum to ask them to explain and they didn't know either.
But... Microsoft Office Photo Manager's built-in Tools, Resize, and Compress, do work for me.
The attached (suitable for a cover) sailboat photo (from my New Zealand Adventure with my sons) was originally 1600 x 1200 portrait mode, size 434 kb.
I used Microsoft Office Photo Manager's "Resize" to change the height to 1200 and let the other side adjust to whatever the software wanted to do... which was 900 pixels.
That works beautifully... it fills out my K2 screen from edge to edge, and the size is now 232 kb.
The attached photo of Millie (from my children's book, A Donkey Named Millie) is the size I use on inside pages. It was originally 1600 x 1200 landscape mode, size 932 kb.
I used Microsoft Office Photo Manager's "Compress" to reduce its size and weight. It displays at a little less than half the height of the K2 screen, leaving me room for a few lines of text, and the width is filled edge to edge. Its size is now 73 kb.
Hi - your site is great. I'm just starting out and have googled lots of sites and didn't find them useful. Thank you. I'm just preparing my file. I want to include lots of small pictures - approx. 2 inches by 2 inches. When I resized them to 72dpi the file size is reduced to approx 5 kb; I'm concerned that they will look awful and wonder if I should increase the picture size (don't really want to do that). Can you help?
I must confess, I don't have much luck with re-sizing pictures to a certain dpi or pixels. I can follow the directions ok, but the Kindle often has other ideas.
I have better luck by inserting my picture, then look at it on the screen and re-size it to look right, as I did the article below:
Keep in mind that the Kindle** can't flow text around your pictures, so you might as well make your images full width... otherwise you will just have wide white margins on either size.
(**I'm speaking of the "classic" Kindle... not the new Fire. The Kindle Fire can jump through hoops, but that requires actual programming, which is beyond the scope of 'easy as pie".)
My guess is, you will be happier just sizing your images to look right, as I have described in the link above.
I have tried to do this but when I upload to amazon it says the size is still invalid.
ReplyDeleteCan you help?
Hi Dave,
ReplyDeleteYes, I will try to help.
Please describe exactly what you did... and include the sizes of your images and file.
Hi - your site is great. I'm just starting out and have googled lots of sites and didn't find them useful. Thank you. I'm just preparing my file. I want to include lots of small pictures - approx. 2 inches by 2 inches. When I resized them to 72dpi the file size is reduced to approx 5 kb; I'm concerned that they will look awful and wonder if I should increase the picture size (don't really want to do that). Can you help?
ReplyDeleteHi Alex,
ReplyDeleteI must confess, I don't have much luck with re-sizing pictures to a certain dpi or pixels. I can follow the directions ok, but the Kindle often has other ideas.
I have better luck by inserting my picture, then look at it on the screen and re-size it to look right, as I did the article below:
http://www.cjs-easy-as-pie.com/2011/12/how-to-place-picture-into-your-file_23.html
Keep in mind that the Kindle** can't flow text around your pictures, so you might as well make your images full width... otherwise you will just have wide white margins on either size.
(**I'm speaking of the "classic" Kindle... not the new Fire. The Kindle Fire can jump through hoops, but that requires actual programming, which is beyond the scope of 'easy as pie".)
My guess is, you will be happier just sizing your images to look right, as I have described in the link above.
CJ