So now we know that the size of files does matter. We also know that photos are some of the biggest space hogs in your server folder as well. With photos, however, if you're going to take the time to resize, why not take another few minutes to glam up?  Read on, and I'll get you started.

Did you know that when you send those family holiday photos the size of the photo makes all the difference in whether you email arrives as intended, too? If you're using your desktop machine from work, you may want to use IrfanView to resize your photos. Today you'll find directions that I've modified from a couple of sources to help you use this program. I'll be the first to tell you that this is not my favorite photo editing program and that it is not intuitive, but it is free!

If you prefer to work online, there are a couple of photo editing resources available to you without cost. Picasa [1] is a free download from Google with online tutorials available.  It even has an online photo album, enabling photo sharing without the need for emails or printing.  Picnik [2] is a completely online resource allowing you to edit photos with no download and no registration.  This one has lots of effects, frames, and fonts just for fun.  FotoFlexer [3] is another more advanced and completely online editing tool that allows you to manipulate images in many ways.  Here's your opportunity to draw a moustache on your mom or to put lipstick on your dad!  Change the brightness, or hue of a photo.  Get rid of red-eye.  Want to make a photo look old?  Try the sepia tint. There are so many ways to have fun while saving the photos in a smaller and more useful format.

Finally, you might want to consider using another free application such as Flickr [4] for photo sharing.  You can set the privacy level for your photos so that only friends and family can see what you upload, or you may want to share with the world.  What ever you do, take some time to get to turn your everyday snapshots into really glamorous works of art.