Tips for e‑mailing photos
In this articleDigital photography and the Internet have combined to shorten the time it takes to share photos, from days to minutes. Using e‑mail is the most direct way to quickly share those photos with the people you care about most. This article will show you the best way to format your photos for sending them in e‑mail and how to use Windows Live Mail to easily share previews of photos and larger versions online.
Bigger isn't necessarily better
When sending photos in e‑mail, the size of the photos becomes important. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) restrict the size of your e‑mail inbox, and photos can quickly take up space. If you include too many photos that are too large in size, your message might not make it out of your own inbox, and even if it does, there’s a chance your recipient’s inbox might block the message.
What's more, some users still use slower dial-up connections to the Internet, as opposed to faster broadband connections, such as cable or DSL. If you send large photos to dial-up users, it can take a long time for images to download and appear, which can be frustrating for the people you send them to. So send the smallest pictures you can, and if you do send large pictures, only send a few at a time.
How to send resized photos in e‑mail
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| You can see the estimated storage size for each photo size option |
You can use Windows Live Photo Gallery to quickly attach photos to an e‑mail message and automatically compress the photos (reduce their file size) so that the e‑mail message arrives more quickly and the pictures take up less space on the recipient's computer. Don't worry—the original pictures aren't affected, so you don't need to make separate smaller copies just for e‑mail.
You can download Windows Live Photo Gallery for free, online, from the Photo Gallery-Windows Live website.
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| | 1.
| Click the Start button  , click All Programs, click Windows Live, and then click Windows Live Photo Gallery. | | 2.
| Click the photo that you want to send in an e‑mail message. To select more than one photo, hold down the CTRL key while you click the photos you want to select. | | 3.
| On the toolbar, click E‑mail. If Windows Live Mail is set as your default e-mail program and you're signed into it with a Windows Live ID, your photos will be attached to a photo e-mail message in Windows Live Mail. Go to the next section to learn more about sending photo e‑mail messages in Windows Live Mail. | | 4.
| In the Attach files dialog box, select a photo size for your recipients from the Photo size list. Medium is usually a good choice, but if you're sending many photos, you might choose a smaller size to reduce the overall size of the e‑mail message. | | 5.
| Click Attach. A new e‑mail message opens using your preferred e‑mail program with the photos attached. | | 6.
| Enter the e‑mail addresses of the recipients, type a subject, and write a brief message. When you have finished composing the e‑mail message, click Send. |
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Do more with e‑mailed photos using Windows Live Mail
In Windows Live Mail, you can do more with the photos you send in e‑mail by sending a photo e‑mail message. When you send a photo e‑mail message in Windows Live Mail, you can quickly send e‑mails of photos in a variety of size and layout styles. You can also autocorrect and rotate photos; add effects, such as borders; add captions; and include any text in the e‑mail that you want to send.
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| Send a photo e‑mail using Windows Live Mail |
If you create a photo e‑mail while signed in to Windows Live Mail with a Windows Live ID, there's an added bonus: the ability for recipients to view the photos as a slideshow hosted on a Windows Live Spaces website. The people you send e‑mail to can view larger versions of the photos if they want to, and they can also download the larger versions (for up to 30 days)—all without them having to enter any user name or password to view the pictures. Plus, there’s no uploading or managing by you—you get the benefit of posting photos online to a website without any of the fuss.
If you use Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, or Xbox LIVE, you've already got a Windows Live ID. If you don't have a Windows Live ID, click Sign in in Windows Live Mail, and then click the Don't have a Windows Live ID? link to get one.
You can download Windows Live Mail for free, online, from the Mail-Windows Live website.
| To send a photo e‑mail in Windows Live Mail |
| | 1.
| Click the Start button , click All Programs, click Windows Live, and then click Windows Live Mail. | | 2.
| Click Sign in, and enter your Windows Live ID and password. | | 3.
| Click the arrow next to the New button, and then click Photo e‑mail. | | 4.
| In the Add Photos dialog, browse to the folder containing the photos you want to include, click the picture that you want to send in e‑mail, and then click Add. To select more than one item, hold down the CTRL key while you click the items that you want to select. | | 5.
| Keep adding photos until you are done, and then click Done. | | 6.
| On the toolbar, click Photos. Choose the resolution of the photos that are uploaded to the Windows Live server when you click Send. The resolution you choose determines the quality of the photos when viewed as a slideshow and downloaded, but it doesn’t affect the size of the e‑mail message, itself.  | | Choose the resolution of the uploaded images |
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| On the toolbar, click Layout, and then choose how you want the e‑mail message to look and how large you want the images in the message to be. The larger the images, the larger the message will be.  | | Configure the layout of the photo e‑mail message |
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| Enter the e‑mail addresses of the recipients, type a subject, and write a brief message. When you have finished composing the e–mail message, click Send. |
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Viewing a slideshow
When your friends and family receive your photo e‑mail, they’ll see the photos in the layout and size that you chose. That alone is great, but if you were signed in with your Windows Live ID when you created and sent the photo e‑mail, they can also view the photos presented as a slideshow, and then download larger versions of the photos if they choose to do so.
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| Play a slideshow from the photo e‑mail message |
When they click Play slideshow, a Windows Live Spaces website opens and displays the photos in sequential order as a slideshow. The recipient can vary the slideshow speed, download the larger picture, and view the photo at a larger display size.
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| Change the slideshow speed or download a higher-resolution picture |
Help and How-to
