# Help with posting pics?



## bunnyluv96 (Apr 22, 2010)

So I don't have a digital camera yet, I just have to buy the disposables and scan my pics in. So I guess they are bpm instead of jpg? Is there anyway to swap them over so I can post them? I'm a bit confused... if anyone can offer any help I'd be grateful. Thanks!!


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## MikeScone (Apr 22, 2010)

*bunnyluv96 wrote: *


> ...scan my pics in. So I guess they are bpm instead of jpg? Is there anyway to swap them over so I can post them?


BMP and JPG are just two out of many different formats for digital picture files. Most scanning software will allow you to save the pictures in either format, and probably many others as well. The most common are:
BMP - this is an uncompressed format, which results in huge files. There's not much reason to use BMP, unless you're trying to save a wallpaper file for a Windows computer running an old version of Windows.
JPG (actually, "JPEG" for "Joint Picture Expert Group") - this is the most common format, and most digital cameras by default store their images as JPGs. The JPEG format compresses pictures so that the files are much smaller. Note that JPEG files vary in the amount of compression applied - if you overcompress them, the pictures become very fuzzy (or "artifacted"). Make sure that your camera or scanner is set for "normal" or "fine" quality, and not the lowest quality (sometimes this is expressed as a number from 1-10 or 1-12 - use 8 or higher). JPEG is not good for line art, as it cannot reproduce sharp lines well without making the file very large. 
GIF files are best for line art. They're only capable of reproducing 256 colors at most, but this isn't usually a problem. Sometimes it results in bands of color in what should be a smooth gradient. GIF files allow transparency - my avatar is a GIF file with the background set to transparent, which is why you can see the color of the web page here around Scone's picture.
If your scanner software will only produce BMP's, there are a number of good freeware or shareware file converter programs which allow you to convert from one format to another. I recommend Graphic Workshop, but there are many others. Check the Tucows.com website.


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