With Christmas a few weeks behind us, the first of the holiday photos are beginning to circulate. Pictures are one of the most popular items to attach to e-mails and who doesn’t like sharing pictures with friends and family?

If there is any drawback to sending pictures via e-mail, it’s that many Internet users don’t know how to format their pictures for easy sending and receiving.

If pictures aren’t properly formatted, the result can be clogged e-mail in-boxes or low quality pictures. Fortunately, the following steps can make e-mailing pictures an easier experience for the sender and the receiver.

1. What is that e-mail address again? Make sure you have the right e-mail address for your friend or relative before you send the message.

2. Small files are better: Files that contain pictures take up much more memory than a letter or spreadsheet. That’s why it’s important to keep the pictures reasonably sized, preferably under 500K. How do you keep picture size in check, but not lose quality? Generally a resolution of 72 dpi (dots per inch) works just fine. You’ll also want to see what the picture’s dimensions are. Some digital cameras take and export images that are very large and these need to be reduced. How do you reduce them? There is a large variety of photo-related software available, but for many programs, you can adjust both the picture’s dimensions and resolution under “Image Size.”

3. JPEG is the way to go: JPEG is a type of image file that allows you to compress your pictures for e-mail purposes. For most purposes, you should save and send your pictures as JPEG images. This can be done in your photo-related software.

4. One or two pictures per e-mail: Any more than one or two pictures per message could create a large e-mail. This memory-heavy message could clog the recipient’s in-box and take a long time to download.

5. Ask how it worked: Check with the friend or relative who you sent an e-mail to and make sure the pictures were easy to download and open. If not, try reformatting your pictures the next time you send them and then ask whether the changes helped.

6. Get high-speed Internet access: Sending and receiving pictures via e-mail works with a dial-up connection. However, even properly formatted pictures can still take a long-time to send over a dial-up connection. If you frequently send or receive pictures via e-mail, you may want to switch to high-speed Internet if you haven’t already. High-speed Internet takes much less time to send or receive pictures and generally makes the experience much more enjoyable. Many people believe the enhanced performance and features of this service are well worth the additional investment.

If you have any additional questions regarding your HunTel.net Internet service or would like information about high-speed Internet, please call our technical support team at 533-5777 or 1-888-491-9115. Help is available seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. You can also send us an e-mail at techsupport@huntel.net.