OK, so you've got this far, but you're unsure about how to upload that image. This article should help you solve the problem.
GIF? JPEG? What are you talking about?
Computer image files come in a variety of formats. The format of an image can usually be worked out from the last part of the file name, the three (or more) letters after the 'dot' known as the file extension. For example, a photograph might have the filename myphoto.jpg, with the '.jpg' part telling you that this is a JPEG image. Windows sometimes hides filename extensions, if you are really unsure, right-click the image and select Properties to find out exactly what it is.
There are lots of image formats out there including GIF (.gif), JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg), PNG (.png), TIFF (.tif), Photo-CD (.pcd), Encapsulated PostScript (.eps), Bitmap (.bmp) and lots more. For images on the web, however, you're restricted to three common formats:
- GIF, usually used for logos, diagrams, line-art, cartoons and anything else with solid blocks of colour. You would usually be using this format.
- JPEG, usually used for photographic and photo-realistic images.
- PNG, a newer image format, deals well with any kind of image, but not viewable in all web browsers. We would recommend sticking with GIF or JPEG unless you are confident with image editing.
If your image is already in one of these formats, great! You should be able to upload it to the site from your hard drive without any difficulty. If it isn't in GIF or JPEG format, you'll need to convert it. Open it up in your favourite image editing software (we recommend the excellent, and free, IrfanView). Now click File, then Save As (or in some software, Save for Web), and choose the file type of GIF for logos or other line art, JPEG for a photo. Give it a file name, and click OK. Done!
Nope, still not working.
Is it really, really big? If so, make it smaller. If you're using IrfanView, open the image then choose Image then Resize/Resample Image. Choose a width of about 500px. Click OK.
My image is in a Microsoft Word or PDF document. Now what?
Microsoft Word documents and PDF documents, though handy for passing images around in, are not images themselves. So you'll need to get your image out of the document and into an image file. Do this as follows:
- Open the document
- Select it with your mouse or keyboard
- Copy it to the clipboard (Edit then Copy or Ctrl+C)
- Open your image editor
- Paste the image from the clipboard. In some image editors, you will need to open a new (blank) image file before doing this.
- Save the image as a GIF or JPEG. Choose File, then Save As (or in some software, Save for Web), and choose the file type of GIF for line art, JPEG for a photo. Give it a file name, and click OK. Done!
Still have problems? Send us an email at info@kitdesigner.co.uk attaching your image and we'll return it to you in a format you can upload.