Like time in a bottle, our photographs are memories of moments forever captured. In conventional cameras, chemical and mechanical processes captured images on film. To email a picture taken on film to a friend, the film needs to be developed into individual photos, and the photo then has to be digitally scanned to save the image on your computer. The scanner reads the pixels (tiny dots of color) that make up a photograph and converts the pixels into digital language (bits and bytes) that can be understood by the computer's processors. The photo file from the computer can then be transferred over the internet via email. Digital cameras use a tiny computer processing chip that automatically converts the different levels of light in individual pixels of an image into bits and bytes, eliminating the scanning step necessary with film images.
Digital photography allows us to store photographic images on our computers. We no longer have to sort through individual pictures stored in boxes or photo albums, saving time and physical space in our homes. However, digital images take up a tremendous amount of memory space on our computers, which can slow down application processes and make our computers run much more slowly.
Why do digital images take up so much computer memory? The brightness values in the pixels of an image are converted into bits; 28 bits make up one byte and can have 256 different values. The more pixels in an image, the more bytes of information must be stored. Images can contain hundreds of pixels per inch. Since most pictures have complex bit and byte makeup, it takes a lot of memory to accurately store a photograph or other image. The more memory required to store images, the harder a computer processor has to work to run software applications.
There are a couple of ways you can reduce the stress and storage space needed to store photographs on your computer. The first way is to transfer all your photograph files to CD. Storing your photos this way takes up less space than photo albums or box files, but still requires physical space for storage.
Another way to reduce the amount of memory needed to store images on your computer is to use compression software. Compression software is less expensive and more versatile than CDs or other storage methods. Compression software works by eliminating repetitive information in a file, thus reducing the size. Most types of computer files have the same information listed over and over again. Instead of listing a whole piece of information over and over again, a file-compression program lists that information once, catalogues it and then refers back to it whenever it appears again in the original program. This compression process reduces the total file size and eliminates the need for extra storage. If you use a digital camera, you need photo compression software to ensure that you computer's speed is not inhibited by memory requirements for photo and image storage.
As our technological capabilities have advanced, our need to store and transmit all the data, graphics and images we create has grown dramatically. Information Technology (IT) allows us to communicate in seconds through a variety of formats. Slide shows, photographs, and colorful graphic images and charts are easier to create than ever before, however, many of these files require huge amounts of storage capacity and can take several minutes to transmit over the internet.
Compression software applications have been created to reduce storage space requirements and transmittal time for specific kinds of files, particularly large text documents, slide shows, and photographs. These compression software applications convert JPEG, TXT, DOC, PNG, GIF, and TIFF files into manageable, easily-transmitted files without losing any of the formatting and integrity of the original documents. Compressing files saves an enormous amount of money, time and storage space.
In the past, it was considered an acceptable trade-off to lose some of the quality of graphic images like photographs in order to compress files because a small loss in quality was not noticeable. However, because clarity on our monitors and screens has considerably improved through LCD and plasma high definition, clarity in images can no longer be sacrificed for compression purposes. Compression products are available now that allow users to compress photos by as much as 95% (including JPEG, TIFF and BMP), making it much easier to email and store photographs than previous software applications allowed. Some of these compression products encrypt the photographs to protect your private information from hackers and identity thieves. Some compression software allows you to save up to 20 times more data on your hard drive and memory drives, freeing up important memory capacity to run other programs and applications. Photo compression software applications available today are very easy to use. Users simply drag and drop files into the compression software product and it does the rest of the work, automatically compressing and encrypting photos. The best image compression products compress the photos but allow them to remain completely viewable, a combination that is hard to beat. Users can now send multiple photographs (rather than a couple) in an email attachment in seconds, and the recipients can download and view the photographs without experiencing extensive wait times.
If you have a digital camera, you definitely need some form of image compression software to manage, save, store and share your treasured photographs. Keeping your images on your computer protects them from the ravages of time. Digitally storing your photographs gives you many options for sharing the memories - you can easily download your images onto CDs, or email them to loved ones. You can even create online photo albums for family and friends. Providing photographs for advertising purposes becomes a snap. Image compression software gives you easy accessibility to your photos, provides you with simple transmission tools so you can share your photographs quickly, all while preserving the images and your precious storage space.
Scott Heath has sinced written about articles on various topics from Advertising Guide, Personal Desktop and Information Technology. is one of the leading authorities on compressing image and text files by up to 95%. Also. Scott Heath's top article generates over 1300 views. to your Favourites.