Images, Email, and Internet Mysteries |
If you're reading this column, you're probably (a) interested
in photography, and (b) interested in computers. If both of these
are true, then (c) you've almost certainly experienced fits of
rage at your email system. How often have you tried to send or
receive a picture as an email "attachment", only to
end up staring at a screen full of gibberish? This month, we'll
show you how to banish the gibberish, but be forewarned: There's
a lot of computerese ahead, and precious little photography!
What's the big deal with pictures?
While the internet is a "new" technology relative to
things like cars and toasters, many aspects of it have been around
for quite a few years. When you remember that "internet
years" happen three or four times faster than "dog
years", it's obvious that some parts of the internet are
positively ancient. Email is one of these.
The problems we have with email and images occur because the
basic email protocols were never designed to handle anything
other than simple text messages. So-called ASCII text is convenient
for computers because it can represent all the characters in
the English language and still have space left over in each computer
"byte" for necessary control codes.
When it comes to pictures though, the image data needs every
last "bit" of space, meaning there's none left over
to tell the mail system where messages start and end. What to
do? Rather than fix the basic mail system, programmers figured
out a clever way to convert image data into text so standard
mail software could handle it. The only problem is that it has
to be translated (or "encoded") going in, and re-translated
(or "decoded") coming back out. This is where and why
things get complicated when shipping images around between systems:
While most current versions of internet email software can handle
this encoding and decoding automatically, some major on-line
services (like AOL) don't, requiring the use of "helper"
applications to make the switch. (AOL's forthcoming version 4.0
will have image-handling built into it, but knowing how long
even I've resisted upgrading to version 3.0 on my Mac, it'll
likely be a long while before everybody is using 4.0. To help
you in the meantime, we'll look at how to convert "encoded"
pictures from the internet back into something you can look at
on your computer.
Some Assumptions
In the following, we're going to assume that you're either
using a relatively recent release of an internet email program,
such as Qualcomm's Eudora(tm) or Microsoft's Outlook Express(tm),
or a reasonably recent version of AOL's software, say version
2.6 or later. If you're running a creaky, ancient internet mail
program, get it updated! - There's no reason to struggle with
outdated email software, when the benefits of having something
up-to-date are so great. If you're running AOL software prior
to version 2.6, you should definitely consider updating to version
3.0 (just make a complete backup copy of everything first).
Most of what we'll be talking about here involves crossing from
AOL to other services and back again, although some of it will
be pertinent even to direct AOL-to-AOL connections. (In our testing
for this article, we found that internet-only email went pretty
smoothly without most of the gyrations needed going in or out
of AOL.)
Format First!
Before you send pictures across the internet, get them into a
form guaranteed to be readable on the other end, and that doesn't
take up too much space. The common JPEG format is the answer
here: We won't go into any details, but suffice to say that you
should consider JPEG mandatory for email - don't even think about
BMPs, TIFFs, etc, unless you have special requirements. If you
have picture in something other than JPEG, use yor imaging software
to convert it to JPEG before you send it.
Encoding - Ignorance is Bliss!
Fortunately, at least part of the process is reasonably straightforward,
regardless of where you're sending your pictures from: Both internet
email clients and the AOL email system handle the process of
"attaching" images to messages pretty automatically.
The process is straightforward: Look for the "attach file"
button or menu entry on your email software, click on it, and
then navigate to the file that you want to attach. That's it!
You can attach either one or multiple files, but more on the
multiple-file issue later...
A Special Note for Mac Users
If you're a Mac user, you have an extra decision or two to make
as part of the attachment process: Some of the cool things the
Mac can do with files depend on having the file data in two separate
part
s, or "forks." We're
not going to go into this here, but the fact that Mac files are
different from PC ones means that you have a couple of choices
about how to send them. As you can see from the accompanying
screen shot from the Mac version of Eudora Pro, you can select
from a couple of different types of encoding, and whether or
not to include Mac-specific information. If you know that the
person you're sending the picture(s) to has a Mac, you can use
the "binhex" encoding option and/or choose to "Always
include Macintosh information". This will help the receiving
Mac automatically recognize file types, preserve custom file
icons, etc. On the other hand, if there's a chance the pictures
will end up on the PC side of the world, always select "Uuencode"
for the encoding method, and don't choose the "always include
Mac information" option. (These instructions are particular
to Eudora, but you'll find similar options in most other Mac
e
mail programs.)
On the Receiving End
With most modern internet email client software, receiving pictures
should be no problem either: They'll either be displayed in-line
with the written message, or at worst, extracted and dumped on
your hard disk for viewing in another program. Until AOL version
4.0 comes out though, AOL users have a few more steps to run
through, to "decode" the image files.
On the PC side, a big part of the solution is to get yourself
a copy of the excellent shareware program "WinZip,"
from Niko Mak Computing. It's a free download just about anywhere
on the 'net, but if you use it, you need to register it with
Niko Mak for $29.95. (It's well worth it!)
If you receive just a single JPEG file, chances are it will appear
with its original file name ("file.jpg"), but encoded
into something other than a JPEG format. The drill here is simple:
Go to Windows Explorer, and change the ".jpg" in the
file name to ".uue" - This will let WinZip recognize
it as an encoded file, and deal with it properly. Once the file
is renamed, just open it in WinZip, and save the image file encoded
inside back to disk.
If you more than one picture was sent to you in the same email,
the attachment downloaded to your disk will have a file extension
of ".mim" (eg, "file.mim"). This stands for
a "Multipart Internet Mail Extenson", or MIME file.
This case is actually simpler, since WinZip recognizes MIME files
directly: Just open the MIME file in WinZip, and extract the
images you'll find inside.
On the Mac side, the "universal encoder/decoder"
program equivalent to WinZip is StuffIt Deluxe, by Aladdin systems,
a commercial program that typically sells for $59 or so. The
great news though, is that if all you need is to decode files,
a decoding-only version (StuffIt Expander) is completely free
and available from many sites on the web. With the Mac, you don't
have to worry about file extensions (the ".jpg" or
".uue"), but can just open the received files with
the decoding program exactly as they arrived.
Minor Points
After all the above, if you still run into trouble, here are
a few miscellaneous pointers: Although multiple pictures per
email generally come across as the more-easily interpreted MIME
format, you may find with some services that one picture per
message is the only thing that will work. If you're having no
luck with multiple images, drop back and try just a single image
per email. Also, given the choice, you should probably use the
"attach" command in your email program explicitly,
rather than dragging and dropping. This will insure that the
picture appears as an attachment, rather than being encoded "in-line."
You'll find that some email programs give you the option of compressing
transmitted files. Unless you know in advance this works between
your program and that of the party on the receiving end, avoid
it at all costs! - There are too many different possibilities
for file compression, making the likelihood of success low. Finally,
if all else fails, and the mail must go through, see if you can
arrange a way to get it there without crossing the boundaries
of different services: While AOL is recalcitrant about binary
files coming from the internet, it has no problem with such files
travelling within its boundaries, from one member to another.
Summary
Nothing beats the immediacy of email for sharing pictures
with friends and family. Unfortunately, the results for most
people are frustruation and disappointment. This needn't be the
case: Check out the tips and helper programs mentioned in this
month's article, and you'll soon be burning up the lines with
megabytes of magnificant pictures!