Disable Outlook 2007's Picture Compression

[David McCulloch]

Five months ago, I posted this question, but no one was able to help.

QUESTION: How do I disable picture compression in Outlook 2007?

When I send a message, Outlook 2007 automatically recompresses my inserted
jpeg pictures, even after following Microsoft's HELP instructions for
deactivating picture compression.

When inserted, pictures look fine. After a message has been sent, however,
one can easily see that Outlook reduces the quality of inserted pictures
(for example, they are not nearly as sharp as what I save in Photoshop CS3
and subsequently insert into my messages).

I am a photographer. I don't want Microsoft modifying my work. To me, this
"feature" of automatically compressing images is almost as bad as a virus.
Currently, my only option is to use Outlook Express instead of Outlook 2007
when sending pictures. Unfortunately, this is extremely inconvenient,
especially when managing messages. Attaching pictures is not an option.

------------------------------------------
FYI, this is what Microsoft's Help says:
------------------------------------------

Change the Compress Pictures default settings

The Compress Pictures feature automatically reduces the file size of
pictures when you save your document. You can also delete the cropped parts
of pictures from a file by using this feature.

The Automatically perform basic compression on save option applies only to
the document that is open in the current program. All of the other options
in the Compression Settings dialog box apply to all documents in Office
Excel 2007, Office PowerPoint 2007, Office Word 2007, and Office Outlook
2007.

1. Select a picture in the document.

2. Under Picture Tools, on the Format tab, in the Adjust group, click
Compress Pictures.

3. Click Options, and then do one or more of the following:

* To stop automatic reduction of picture file size when you save the
document, clear the Automatically perform basic compression on save check
box. [I DID THIS]

* To automatically delete cropped areas of pictures when you save the
document, select the Delete cropped areas of pictures check box, and then
click OK. [I DIDN'T DO THIS]

* To automatically save cropped areas of pictures, clear the Delete cropped
areas of pictures check box. [I DIDN'T DO THIS]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dave

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I've read this claim more often but I can't repro it here. Picture size,
dimensions and dpi are the same for me for sending and receiving.

Which method of inserting do you use?
Which method of saving do you use? (or is being used by the recipient)
What is the original size and dpi of the picture and what size and dpi are
they when they arrive?

Curious; why do you insert the picture in-line and not as an attachment?
Apparently you use pictures like documents and not to "bright up" the email.



-----

Five months ago, I posted this question, but no one was able to help.

QUESTION: How do I disable picture compression in Outlook 2007?

When I send a message, Outlook 2007 automatically recompresses my inserted
jpeg pictures, even after following Microsoft's HELP instructions for
deactivating picture compression.

When inserted, pictures look fine. After a message has been sent,
however, one can easily see that Outlook reduces the quality of inserted
pictures (for example, they are not nearly as sharp as what I save in
Photoshop CS3 and subsequently insert into my messages).

I am a photographer. I don't want Microsoft modifying my work. To me,
this "feature" of automatically compressing images is almost as bad as a
virus. Currently, my only option is to use Outlook Express instead of
Outlook 2007 when sending pictures. Unfortunately, this is extremely
inconvenient, especially when managing messages. Attaching pictures is
not an option.

------------------------------------------
FYI, this is what Microsoft's Help says:
------------------------------------------

Change the Compress Pictures default settings

The Compress Pictures feature automatically reduces the file size of
pictures when you save your document. You can also delete the cropped
parts of pictures from a file by using this feature.

The Automatically perform basic compression on save option applies only to
the document that is open in the current program. All of the other options
in the Compression Settings dialog box apply to all documents in Office
Excel 2007, Office PowerPoint 2007, Office Word 2007, and Office Outlook
2007.

1. Select a picture in the document.

2. Under Picture Tools, on the Format tab, in the Adjust group, click
Compress Pictures.

3. Click Options, and then do one or more of the following:

* To stop automatic reduction of picture file size when you save the
document, clear the Automatically perform basic compression on save check
box. [I DID THIS]

* To automatically delete cropped areas of pictures when you save the
document, select the Delete cropped areas of pictures check box, and then
click OK. [I DIDN'T DO THIS]

* To automatically save cropped areas of pictures, clear the Delete
cropped areas of pictures check box. [I DIDN'T DO THIS]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dave

 

[David McCulloch]

Could this be the problem? Does Outlook 2007 display pictures based upon
SIZE instead of PIXELS? In HTML (and Outlook Express), pictures are
normally displayed based upon their number of pixels, not upon their size.
For example, an 800x600 picture would normally be displayed at 800x600
pixels with whatever resolution the monitor was configured to use. Is
Outlook resizing my pictures, not recompressing them?

I ran this test... If I forward a message with a picture, copy that picture
from the original message (i.e., below my reply) and insert it into my
reply, the pasted picture looks somewhat smaller (and clearer) than the
picture below.

If this is what Outlook is doing, is there a way to tell Outlook to display
all pictures at my screen's resolution, not at some other resolution?

Here are answers to your questions...

Which method of inserting do you use?

1. In Outlook 2007, click "New" to open a new message window.
2. Position cursor in message body.
3. Click "Insert" (i.e., Alt-N).
4. Click Picture icon (i.e., Alt-N/P).
5. From the "Insert Picture" pop-up window, click a .jpg file.

Which method of saving do you use? (or is being used by the recipient)

I simply click the "Send" icon.

What is the original size and dpi of the picture and what size and dpi are
they when they arrive?

How can I reliably check the size and dpi of a message after it has been
sent from Outlook? When I right-click a picture in Outlook, I don't see a
Properties in the menu. I can copy a picture from a sent message and paste
it into another (or the same) Outlook message, but Photoshop does not allow
it to be pasted.

Curious; why do you insert the picture in-line and not as an attachment?
Apparently you use pictures like documents and not to "bright up" the
email.

1. Convenience... As soon as someone opens my message, I want them to see
my pictures as if they were viewing a web page. I often have one or two
dozen pictures. That would be a lot of attachments to open.

2. Control... If I attached pictures, I would have no control over which
program opened the them. With inserted pictures, at least I know that the
recipient's email program (usually Outlook or Outlook Express) is displaying
them. With HTML, I can easily attach notes to pictures without having to
edit them.

3. Consistency... Many of my recipients are not PC experts. They might
not know how to open an attachment. Others might be intimidated by their
security software when they try to open an attachment. Still others might
not know how to use whatever program runs to display their attached
pictures.


Dave

I've read this claim more often but I can't repro it here. Picture size,
dimensions and dpi are the same for me for sending and receiving.

Which method of inserting do you use?
Which method of saving do you use? (or is being used by the recipient)
What is the original size and dpi of the picture and what size and dpi are
they when they arrive?

Curious; why do you insert the picture in-line and not as an attachment?
Apparently you use pictures like documents and not to "bright up" the
email.



-----

Five months ago, I posted this question, but no one was able to help.

QUESTION: How do I disable picture compression in Outlook 2007?

When I send a message, Outlook 2007 automatically recompresses my
inserted jpeg pictures, even after following Microsoft's HELP
instructions for deactivating picture compression.

When inserted, pictures look fine. After a message has been sent,
however, one can easily see that Outlook reduces the quality of inserted
pictures (for example, they are not nearly as sharp as what I save in
Photoshop CS3 and subsequently insert into my messages).

I am a photographer. I don't want Microsoft modifying my work. To me,
this "feature" of automatically compressing images is almost as bad as a
virus. Currently, my only option is to use Outlook Express instead of
Outlook 2007 when sending pictures. Unfortunately, this is extremely
inconvenient, especially when managing messages. Attaching pictures is
not an option.

------------------------------------------
FYI, this is what Microsoft's Help says:
------------------------------------------

Change the Compress Pictures default settings

The Compress Pictures feature automatically reduces the file size of
pictures when you save your document. You can also delete the cropped
parts of pictures from a file by using this feature.

The Automatically perform basic compression on save option applies only
to the document that is open in the current program. All of the other
options in the Compression Settings dialog box apply to all documents in
Office Excel 2007, Office PowerPoint 2007, Office Word 2007, and Office
Outlook 2007.

1. Select a picture in the document.

2. Under Picture Tools, on the Format tab, in the Adjust group, click
Compress Pictures.

3. Click Options, and then do one or more of the following:

* To stop automatic reduction of picture file size when you save the
document, clear the Automatically perform basic compression on save check
box. [I DID THIS]

* To automatically delete cropped areas of pictures when you save the
document, select the Delete cropped areas of pictures check box, and then
click OK. [I DIDN'T DO THIS]

* To automatically save cropped areas of pictures, clear the Delete
cropped areas of pictures check box. [I DIDN'T DO THIS]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dave

 

[Roady [MVP]]

The Reading Pane resizes the image so that they will fit within the pane
without the need to scroll.

I've send various pictures to myself (different in format, dimensions, dpi
and file size) and then abstracted them from the email via my own macro;
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/saveembeddedpictures.htm

The result was that they were still exactly the same (+checksum test) so
Outlook didn't do anything to those pictures.
Can you try the same?



-----

Could this be the problem? Does Outlook 2007 display pictures based upon
SIZE instead of PIXELS? In HTML (and Outlook Express), pictures are
normally displayed based upon their number of pixels, not upon their size.
For example, an 800x600 picture would normally be displayed at 800x600
pixels with whatever resolution the monitor was configured to use. Is
Outlook resizing my pictures, not recompressing them?

I ran this test... If I forward a message with a picture, copy that
picture from the original message (i.e., below my reply) and insert it
into my reply, the pasted picture looks somewhat smaller (and clearer)
than the picture below.

If this is what Outlook is doing, is there a way to tell Outlook to
display all pictures at my screen's resolution, not at some other
resolution?

Here are answers to your questions...

Which method of inserting do you use?

1. In Outlook 2007, click "New" to open a new message window.
2. Position cursor in message body.
3. Click "Insert" (i.e., Alt-N).
4. Click Picture icon (i.e., Alt-N/P).
5. From the "Insert Picture" pop-up window, click a .jpg file.

Which method of saving do you use? (or is being used by the recipient)

I simply click the "Send" icon.

What is the original size and dpi of the picture and what size and dpi
are they when they arrive?

How can I reliably check the size and dpi of a message after it has been
sent from Outlook? When I right-click a picture in Outlook, I don't see a
Properties in the menu. I can copy a picture from a sent message and
paste it into another (or the same) Outlook message, but Photoshop does
not allow it to be pasted.

Curious; why do you insert the picture in-line and not as an attachment?
Apparently you use pictures like documents and not to "bright up" the
email.

1. Convenience... As soon as someone opens my message, I want them to
see my pictures as if they were viewing a web page. I often have one or
two dozen pictures. That would be a lot of attachments to open.

2. Control... If I attached pictures, I would have no control over which
program opened the them. With inserted pictures, at least I know that the
recipient's email program (usually Outlook or Outlook Express) is
displaying them. With HTML, I can easily attach notes to pictures without
having to edit them.

3. Consistency... Many of my recipients are not PC experts. They might
not know how to open an attachment. Others might be intimidated by their
security software when they try to open an attachment. Still others might
not know how to use whatever program runs to display their attached
pictures.


Dave

I've read this claim more often but I can't repro it here. Picture size,
dimensions and dpi are the same for me for sending and receiving.

Which method of inserting do you use?
Which method of saving do you use? (or is being used by the recipient)
What is the original size and dpi of the picture and what size and dpi
are they when they arrive?

Curious; why do you insert the picture in-line and not as an attachment?
Apparently you use pictures like documents and not to "bright up" the
email.



-----

Five months ago, I posted this question, but no one was able to help.

QUESTION: How do I disable picture compression in Outlook 2007?

When I send a message, Outlook 2007 automatically recompresses my
inserted jpeg pictures, even after following Microsoft's HELP
instructions for deactivating picture compression.

When inserted, pictures look fine. After a message has been sent,
however, one can easily see that Outlook reduces the quality of inserted
pictures (for example, they are not nearly as sharp as what I save in
Photoshop CS3 and subsequently insert into my messages).

I am a photographer. I don't want Microsoft modifying my work. To me,
this "feature" of automatically compressing images is almost as bad as a
virus. Currently, my only option is to use Outlook Express instead of
Outlook 2007 when sending pictures. Unfortunately, this is extremely
inconvenient, especially when managing messages. Attaching pictures is
not an option.

------------------------------------------
FYI, this is what Microsoft's Help says:
------------------------------------------

Change the Compress Pictures default settings

The Compress Pictures feature automatically reduces the file size of
pictures when you save your document. You can also delete the cropped
parts of pictures from a file by using this feature.

The Automatically perform basic compression on save option applies only
to the document that is open in the current program. All of the other
options in the Compression Settings dialog box apply to all documents in
Office Excel 2007, Office PowerPoint 2007, Office Word 2007, and Office
Outlook 2007.

1. Select a picture in the document.

2. Under Picture Tools, on the Format tab, in the Adjust group, click
Compress Pictures.

3. Click Options, and then do one or more of the following:

* To stop automatic reduction of picture file size when you save the
document, clear the Automatically perform basic compression on save
check box. [I DID THIS]

* To automatically delete cropped areas of pictures when you save the
document, select the Delete cropped areas of pictures check box, and
then click OK. [I DIDN'T DO THIS]

* To automatically save cropped areas of pictures, clear the Delete
cropped areas of pictures check box. [I DIDN'T DO THIS]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dave