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Posting Images


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How do I post images on the forums.

By Cichlids_au

Using graphics

There are a number of factors to take into account when using graphics. This is to ensure that your images download quickly.

Image size

Although everyone wants to use as many pictures and animations as possible, this causes one major problem - the more graphics you include in a page, the longer it takes for the page to download. To make a image download in a minimal amount of time you will have to consider the size of the image in terms of memory and download requirements.

An average image should be around 10 - 30 Kilobytes in size. This may not mean much but, the average download speed for a person connecting to the Internet using a modem and phone line is 2 - 4 kilobits per second, depending upon the modem connect speed and phone line quality. You then have to remember that a post that consists of more than just one image. Adding more than one image will see the download times increase, possibly to the stage where a member will abandon your post because it takes too long to download. Most members will abandon a post if it takes more than 30 - 40 seconds to download.

The way to make sure that your images download quickly is to optimise them to reduce memory requirements (file size). You need to select the correct file format in which to save the image to make it as small as possible. An image that is saved in the wrong format can make downloading painfully slow and, may degrade the quality of the image.

Format types

There are two main formats used to publish images on the World Wide Web. The first type of image format is called JPEG, short for Joint Photographic Experts Group. This format is used for images that have many thousands of colours, particularly colours that blend and fade into one another. Photographs and intricate images that have many shades of colour are best suited to the JPEG format (.jpg is file extension).

If, on the other hand your image has flat colour fields, such as illustrations, it would be best saved as a GIF file. GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. This format works very well for images that do not have blended shades of colours, as there are in photographs. As an example, all the images in the set-up guides for this helpdesk are saved in the GIF format, as there is no blending of colours or, multiple shades of colours (.gif is file extension).

Optimising images

In order to optimise images you will need an image-editing program to open your images and save them in the correct format. There are numerous image-editing programs available, some of which are for free while others are available for a trial period, after which you will need to pay the full purchase price to keep using them.

Web Graphics Programs

Adobe Illustrator

Jasc Paintshop Pro

LView Pro

Ulead Photo Impact

You will need to experiment with your chosen graphics program to achieve the effect(s) you want as each program has its own particular way of optimising and converting image format types.

Uploading to your web space

Now that you have completed the resizing and adjustments of your images, it is time to upload them to your web space for the world to see. Using a file transfer protocol program, also known as an FTP program does this. Most HTML editors have FTP functions built in, however many people prefer to use stand-alone purpose designed FTP programs. I use FTP Voyager.

To load your files into your web space, you must first of all configure your particular FTP program to access your web space.

Free Personal Webspace

The server name used for your personal web space, otherwise known as the FTP host address, is given by your ISP, with OptusNet it is members.optusnet.com.au. You will also need to enter your username and password details. These are the same ones that you normally use to connect to your ISP for browsing and email access. Finally, a port number may be required - Check this with your ISP.

Paid Web Hosting

The server name used for your Web Hosting web space is your domain name (eg. mycompany.com.au). You will also need to enter your username and password details. These would have been provided in a letter sent to you confirming your Website details. Again, a is port number may be required - Check with your Web Hosting company.

The way that you configure these settings varies from one FTP program to another, you will need to consult the instructions for your particular FTP program for configuring.

Once you have configured your FTP program, you are ready to upload your images to your web space. This involves:

* Opening your FTP program and logging into your web space using the profile you have configured in the program.

* Selecting the folder/directory on your computer where you have stored the image files you wish to upload.

* Clicking the appropriate button that will start the upload process to your web space.

* Testing your web site by opening your web browser and entering the address (URL) for your web space.

You should now be able to view your images through your browser.

File Transfer Programs

Please note, some of the programs listed here are available for a trial period. After the trial period you may be required to register and pay for the program to continue using it.

File Transfer Programs (FTP) & Operating System

Interarchy (formerly Anarchie) Macintosh

Cute FTP Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000

Fetch FTPFetch FTP Macintosh

FTP Explorer Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000

WS_FTP Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP

FTP Voyager Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000

Posting your images

There are three different posting screens available . We will be dealing with the first two.

The add reply button  allows you to add a new reply onto that particular topic. The new topic button  allows you to add a new topic to that particular forum.

When you are in the post screen you will have several formatting options available.

For posting images we use the IMG button . If you have not been able to optimise your image you can use the http:// button . When you click one of these buttons you will be presented with a dialogue box.

The IMG dialogue box will allow you to past your image URL, this will add the code required to display the image for you directly into your post like this

.

The http:// button will allow you to post a link to your image that will cause the image to appear in a new window, once you have pasted the URL into the dialogue box and press enter, you will be presented with another dialogue box. This second box will determine what text will appear in your post, like this

My M. chipokae

When you have completed editing your post you will see these buttons  at the bottom of the screen.

The Preview Post button  will allow you to view your post before it is added to the forum, this will give you the opportunity to make any corrections you may need.

When you are happy with your post the Add Reply button  will cause the post to the forum for all the members to see.

Editing Posts

If you find that you have made a mistake in your post after you have posted your images you can alter the original post using the edit button in this button group.

The edit button  allows you to re-enter the post to make your amendments.

http://www.cichlids-aust.com/posting-images.html

How do I post images on the forums.

BY Vis

For those not too sure how to post pics:

Most people have allocated webspace that comes with an internet account. This ranges from around 10MB to 50MB in most cases. You can use this space to store websites or simply a bunch of pictures.

For the purpose of this explanation, our username is "username", our ISP is called "internetcompany" and the picture we want to upload from our computer is called "picture1".

First of all you will probably need to use an image program to resize your picture to stay inline with the image pixel size and memory size stated in the post above this one. There are plenty of free ones including:

Microsoft paint

Microsoft photo editor (both these should already be on your PC if you are running windows)

Fastone photo resizer

Google search of other image resizer programs

Alternatively there are plenty of good illustration / photo programs about including photoshop, corel draw, paintshop pro etc.

Once you can manipulate images so they can be viewed easily on the internet, it's time to upload them. The program I recommend is WS_FTP, which you can download free here, to trial it, but most PC magazines have a shareware version in their free CD's. Alternatively, there is Cute_FTP, FTP Commander etc, all of which you can download here. Using a file transfer program is easy. Just have a read of their help files and you'll be an expert in 30 minutes.

Your ISP provided webspace will most likely look like this:

http://www.internetcompany.com.au/username

You should either see the ISP homepage or ring them to confirm what your webspace address will look like.

You can upload pictures directly into the public_html folder in your FTP program (which will be the default folder once you log into your account through your FTP program) and the address of your picture will be:

http://www.internetcompany.com.au/username/picture1.jpg

Alternatively you can create different folders on your computer and upload entire folders via FTP. Say you wanted to track all your photos easily, you could create a folder on your computer called "fish" and another called "family" (and so on). Then simply upload the entire folder into the public_html folder and each time simply add future pics to the appropriate folder via FTP.

If you had your picture in your "fish" folder, your url for that pic will now be:

http://www.internetcompany.com.au/username/fish/picture1.jpg

Copy the url to the clipboard.

If you don't have personal webspace, the best online space is probably Photobucket. Create a free account and upload your pictures as described in their website.

Once you upload your pics, view the one you want to post on this forum, right click on it and select "properties". Highlight the url text and copy it to clipboard.

Photobucket is easy to use, but having the pics on personal webspace is still preferable, as it is "your" space which you can use as you see fit, and you can't create websites on photobucket down the track with those photos.

Ok! Now posting the picture once you have the url is the easy bit. You now have a url of the picture you want to post on your clipboard. When you want to insert it into your post, simply click on the "IMG" button above the window where you are typing in your post. A popup window will appear and you paste the url into the space provided.

A BBcode line should appear similar to this (but not in bold):

http://www.internetcompany.com.au/username/fish/picture1.jpg[ /IMG]

Once you submit the post, the picture should appear in the post.

Get posting!

http://ace.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=15842

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  • 4 years later...

Or by using the ACE Gallery

1) Go to My Controls

2) Then click "your album" in the Invision Gallery

3) Then click "Click Here to create your album"

4) Make a album, a name and album description,

5) Check the box so the public can see it

6) Click "Create Album"

7) Then under controls select the operation "Click upload image"

8) Add a caption and message for your image

9) Upload your image by clicking browse and selecting the file you want

10)Then click post image

11)Now go back to album manager and click view your image

12) Then right click on your image and select "copy shortcut" or "copy image location". That's is the URL to your image

13) In your post select the icon of the little tree and paste in this URL. Alternatively you can type your URL between the img code as and put your URL here[/img ]

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