Sharing photos on the forum & Etiquette (Please read)

[Carl]

Convert photos to JPG format for stories and sharing on the forum & Etiquette

Index of Links:

About default images that come from Sims 4
How to: Convert photos to jpeg format
About IfanView and Your Current Photos
How to: Check Your Image Type/Format
Attach and Insert Photos into Posts
A Reminder on Etiquette


About default images that come from Sims 4
And why we prefer photos in .jpg format.

Hi guys, depending on the service you use, it would be friendly to our mobile users to switch the types of files you're sharing on the Forum to jpg. Many files are of the png type, uncompressed, and a single picture is 2.5 megabytes in size. This is the default type of screenshot the Sims 3/4 take and they are literally 10x bigger in terms of file size than they need to be. I'm not talking about how wide a picture is, but the amount of downloading a person has to do to get the picture. If you have a story with 50 pictures on one page, a person has to download over 75mg just to download that page. This definitely hurts people's abilities to read your stories.

If you're just uploading pictures from the game directly, you're using the high-res screenshots and those aren't necessary here. The largest picture size the Forum will even display is 800 pixels wide. Many pictures here are 1920 pixels wide and in uncompressed PNG format. We want a compressed format so it's more friendly. It's literally about 4x as big as an 800 width picture in terms of size, and about 10x larger in terms of how much a person has to download. This is why we prefer members convert photos to .jpg format.

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How to Convert Photos to JPG format

Here are a few free editors to convert the pictures from PNG format to JPEG for you.

IrfanView - http://download.cnet.com/IrfanView/

Simple Batch Conversion Using Irfanview
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/50519/simple-batch-conversion-using-irfanview/

Resize Images with Irfanview
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=26583.msg483711#msg483711

How To: Use IrfanView Batch Conversion and Resize Images
https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=30846.msg492875#msg492875

*****

Microsoft Paint (Comes with Windows)

How To: Edit Photos - Basics using Paint
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,25578.0.html

How to Use Microsoft Paint in Windows
https://www.wikihow.com/Use-Microsoft-Paint-in-Windows

How to Resize an Image in Microsoft Paint
https://www.wikihow.com/Resize-an-Image-in-Microsoft-Paint

*****

Other ways to convert photos to .jpg format:

wikiHow to Convert Pictures To Jpeg
http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-Pictures-To-JPEG

Using your own photo editor, if you have one to load your photos and export them as .jpg or .jpeg

Using an image converter online:

Convert Png to Jpg
https://png2jpg.com/
Select files to upload or drag and drop the files

PNG to JPG online converter
https://ezgif.com/png-to-jpg
- Select files to upload or use their image url to convert files.

How to Edit Photos on Mac Using Photos
https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/editing-basics-pht304c2ace6/mac

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About IfanView and Your Current Photos

Irfanview is an excellent photo editor, and you can actually convert ALL of your images at once, using the instructions. Then, when you upload them they will not take mobile users nearly as long to download. Even on my fast cable, it takes about 10 seconds to load some pages with many png images.

I won't point out any culprits, just want you guys who didn't know to know that the size of files matters in an age when so many people are using limited data plans on mobile phones with already slow internet. I am sure that some people have to stay away from stories just because they can eat up so much bandwidth.

There's no need to go back and change all your story pictures, this is just a nice idea for future posts. I wouldn't want anyone to have to do all that work! Once you've wrapped your head around how to batch replace  - with the 'B' key in Irfanview, it becomes very easy and the files even take less time to upload to your choice of image hosting services, such as Imgur or Photobucket.

Follow those instructions and converting pictures will become second nature, even if it takes some time to learn. There is no need to resize them if you'd like people to be able click them to see the full image, but changing the file type will have a massive impact on size without noticeably hurting the picture's quality. This will also reduce the space images take up on your hard drive, allowing you to store many more of them if you delete the originals once the conversion is done. I suggest you make a subfolder in The Sims 4 screenshots directory, and put the converted pictures there. You can then delete as many high-res shots as you need, and in the process save tons of space.

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How to Check Your Images Type/Format

: If you wonder which type you're using but are unsure, you can check with these instructions, provided by Deklitch:

1) Go to the post that has the image you want to check.

2) Right click the image you want to check.

3) Select Open Image, View Photo Info or Properties from the drop down. (Depending on what browser you have.)

4) In the pop-up box that comes up - look for the word Type: If this says PNG Image, then your image was saved in .png format and will need to be changed to a .jpg format.

5) Repeat the above 4 steps for a few more pictures in one of your posts to ensure that it wasn't a one off jpg file, but provided you save the pictures in the same way each time, they should be the same format. (Note the SHOULD, not WILL in that last sentence)

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Also, a Reminder on Etiquette

We have had a few incidents where people have commented rude things on other people's stories. That's completely unacceptable. The comments get removed; you are in another person's little spot on the forum and it's rude to say something negative about their story and intend to degrade them. This is their place to express creativity, and if you do not like the story you can just move on. Just because you don't like the direction a story is heading, doesn't mean someone else doesn't. Many members enjoy reading them, and encourage one another.

Those are called manners, exercise them please.

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[Magpie2012]

@Carl thanks so much for this. I just adore this forum, and being unable to view screenshots due to size does somewhat impact on a story. As to the etiquette, this forum is leaps and bounds above the official forum when it comes to manners. I'm just grateful that potentially hurtful comments get taken down so quick!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9720 using Tapatalk

[Dellena]

Those are called manners, exercise them please.

More proof my mom was right, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

[MarianT]

I did not know that about png and jpg files. I'll start converting immediately.

[sdhoey]

Thank you so much for this Carl. Just checked out the Link you posted and you had me at the CNET link.. lol if it has a CNET download link then I'm game.  Anything to help my forum friends out.

[MarianT]

Okay, I'm thoroughly confused. I downloaded Irfanview, but I can't seem to do a batch conversion. Also, can we share from Irfanview, or do we still need to go through something like Photobucket or Imgur?

And is there any way to change the pictures that we already have on Photobucket?

Edit to add: I think I understand now. I've changed my pictures to .jpg on Irfanview, but then I go to Photobucket to edit and share. They do seem to load faster.I still haven't figured out how to change the pictures that I already have on Photobucket though.

[Magpie2012]

As someone who predominantly visits the forum via mobile, I just want to say thank you to all of you for being so quick to embrace this change. Yet another reason to totally love and adore everyone here 

[MarianT]

I haven't figured out a really efficient way to do this yet, but I have started changing my Photobucket .png files to .jpg files.

First you have to download Irfanview on to your computer.
Go to Photobucket. Over on the right, underneath the different ways to share your pictures, in small print, there's a command to Download Album.
Click on that. When your story album has finished downloading, shut down Photobucket.
Open Irfanview. Get the album file from your Download section, and do a Batch Conversion.
Go back to Photobucket and Create a New Album. Upload the screenshots from the subfolder where your jpg files are.

At this point, you have to come back to the Forum and Modify your chapters. I can't think of any faster way than to copy each screenshot individually and replace what you had previously. The good news is that your .jpg photos will have all the cropping and resizing that you'd edited in.

[Playalot]

I didn't know about the difference in files either... hmm... I have a feeling this is going to be a steep learning curve.. As well as pretty time consuming. 

[grimsoul]

If your like me and use Photoshop for your editing software there is a easy way of converting your pictures with it also without having to download another program.
Here's a tutorial on how.  Converting a batch of pictures to .jpeg format

[Playalot]

If your like me and use Photoshop for your editing software there is a easy way of converting your pictures with it also without having to download another program.
Here's a tutorial on how.  Converting a batch of pictures to .jpeg format

I actually just use photobucket... so I will have to really think about where to from here. Thanks though grimsoul I'll have a read through the link as it might be easier to change what I do completely.

[Carl]

I'm glad there's a good response here and some are wiling to try.

You do still need a hosting source, Irfanview is just an image editor in certain ways, not like Photoshop although Photoshop can do all Irfanview can. It's great for viewing things - hence the name.

@MarianT Press B in Irfanview, and you can do a batch conversion. That's it. You can even use select all once you've navigated to the right folder,  then on the left select a different folder to put the converted ones in.

Under output format, pick JPEG. When you've got your settings ready, hit start batch and it will do all the files you've selected.

Irfanview can also be used to crop, and it's what I use to make the guide's pictures look good  (or try) Honestly a full picture of the game screen doesn't look nearly as good as a small selection of it. Given the width we allow here, you can show a better view of your subject in an 800 pixel wide picture if you take the time to crop it.

Drag a box, control + Y and voila, you've cropped it.

These are good skills for heavy internet users, anyway, and can help you with disk usage as I said.

[Carl]

Also, I did not mean for people to go back and change pictures. This is just a good guideline and not some rule. I am editing the first post to reflect this. I don't want anyone to have to go back and do 30 posts and change them all to jpg. It'd just be nice if in the future at least some people embrace this idea.

[Playalot]

Much more manageable if it's a going forward guideline rather than having to change existing stories for sure. 

[Carl]

@Playalot yes, I'm really glad you messaged me. No one who did PNG was doing anything wrong, I used to have them too - it's just JPG are so much kinder to mobile.

I converted the whole site and it took the size of images down by about 80% if I recall, which really helps when you have 5-10 pics on a page.

[KRae]

I'm so relieved. Mine are apparently all ready JPEGs.

[Joria]

This is really confusing to me.  I downloaded Irfanview but using it is not that simple to me, even with the tutorial.  Oh for the days when we had our own photo gallery.  So much simpler then.  I do use a lot of pictures for my stories, so if I can't get this figured out I regretfully, simply won't post stories anymore, or pics of my builds either.  I know, and accept, it's best for the community as a whole.

EDIT:  I THINK I've got it.  When you convert from png to jpg it makes the picture smaller, right?  So you don't have to go into any "Advanced" stuff to set the pixels?

[Deklitch]

@Joria  - I have just checked a couple of your pictures and they are jpgs, not pngs, so you should be alright to continue posting your stories and creations. I did just check ones in your runaway teen story, not your Sims 4 ID/Creations threads, so you may want to check those as well if you are concerned.

For anyone concerned about your images being of the incorrect type, it is a simple process to check image types! Here's how I do it:

1) Go to the post that has the image you want to check.

2) Right click the image you want to check.

3) Select Open Image, View Photo Info or Properties from the drop down. (Depending on what browser you have.)

4) In the pop-up box that comes up - look for the word Type: If this says PNG Image, then your image was saved in .png format and will need to be changed to a .jpg format.

5) Repeat the above 4 steps for a few more pictures in one of your posts to ensure that it wasn't a one off jpg file, but provided you save the pictures in the same way each time, they should be the same format. (Note the SHOULD, not WILL in that last sentence)

A disclaimer: I am using Google Chrome on a Windows 10 operating system on a PC. I believe that the process should be the same as above if you are using a different browser, operating system or a Mac, however that would need to be checked to be sure.

@Carl @MrsFlynn If the above steps should be useful, please feel free to add them to the first post in this thread/other threads.

[Joria]

@Deklitch :  It may be the difference in your browser.  I use Firefox and when I went and checked most of my pictures in my stories are png.  In Firefox you simply go to the picture in question, right click in the picture which gives a box, chose View Image Info.  About in the middle of the box that brings up it tells you what kind of image it is, whether jpg, png, or whatever.  Thank you for posting that though because I never would have thought to check that way.

Interesting thing about using the Irfanview is it not only changes your png to a jpg but saves the original.  If you save the changes to the same folder you took them from then you have to sort them out to remove, or save, the original png pictures.
My suggestion would be to create a new folder to save the jpgs to so you avoid the sorting out step.

[Playalot]

@Joria I've just had a quick look at your dynasty pics, they are all jpgs as far as I can tell. I just choose some chapters at random so I haven't checked them all, but I'd imagine that they all are jpgs as you most probably edit etc all your pics the same way.

[MarianT]

I'd suggest adding a subfolder to your screenshots folder, and making that the destination for your .jpg files. A word of warning, though -- you have to clear it out each time as the next batch you do won't overwrite the pictures that you have in there, nor will it add on at the end. In other words, if you did 5 pictures the first time and 7 the second, when you check your subfolder, you'll have the 5 pics from the first time and the last 2 from the second.

[Carl]

@Deklitch Thank you, I've added them to the first post.

I appreciate all of you who are trying, if some just can't do it, it's OK. It'll make it easier on people on mobile if even SOME of the images here are converted. If it doesn't work out, go ahead and keep posting your stories as you were or ask one of us for help with the step you're having trouble with. If there's a call for it, I'll consider making a tutorial when I have more free time. I think once you fiddle with it a bit, it should be much easier after the first successful attempt.

[Joria]

Thank you, Carl.  That takes the pressure off.  I just uploaded a new chapter in my dynasty so if folks would check those pics out please?  I used the Irfanview thing with them.

[Carl]

@Joria I see nothing but jpgs for you, which is cool.

Mediafire and the like probably prefer that, since it lowers their costs. I'm not sure why some of them do uncompressed images by default, but I guess in some cases it's important to maintain the original quality

[Joria]

Thanks for checking, Carl.  Now I'm confused, (again, or maybe a perpetual state of mind), as to why when I check the pics, ones I have not altered, they say png format but others see them as jpg.  Oh, well, not gonna complain.

[Carl]

Maybe the ones on your hard drive ARE PNG, but when you upload them to other sites they are automatically converting them to JPG in order to conserve disk space and bandwidth - it'd be bad for their business if all files were large, so unless someone specifically requests it they are going with the lower file size for those 2 reasons.

I honestly wish I could still operate our own gallery, it is just that my server actually doesn't have an awful lot of disk space and the gallery would push me to gradually need a higher priced one.

Maybe one day I'll make an images only server and let people do that again, but it depends on my own success with guides and having someone dedicated to moderating the images. I'd definitely give back to the community in that way, since Sims really kicked off my career.

[Joria]

Carl, luv, you are already doing a LOT for us.  Don't sweat trying to do more.  Most of us, including myself, have a fine place for keeping our images.  Because I know I would use a lot of images, I actually buy the Mediafire professional thing annually.  It's worth it, especially with their new ap for sharing with android things.  The gallery was fabulous for me, especially when building UC, but really, it's more a matter of wanting an "easy button" and laziness.  No pressure, dude!  We appreciate what you do as is.

I'm going to check my Mediafire files and see what properties it shows there.  I don't need extra space being taken up on my pc either so it would be good to have all my pics jpgs. 

[Magpie2012]

@Carl if you ever did that and needed volunteers to moderate the images, I'm sure a ton of us would jump at the chance to give back to a site that has given us all so much (I know I would), so finding a PicTeam would never be that difficult to do :-D

[Playalot]

Maybe the ones on your hard drive ARE PNG, but when you upload them to other sites they are automatically converting them to JPG in order to conserve disk space and bandwidth.

I was thinking about this yesterday. It seems strange to me that photobucket doesn't do this. So I'm currently looking at other photo sharing/storage options. Hoping this will cut out the need for the third step.

[KRae]

I use Photobucket, and mine are all JPGs. I copy the photos using the second link from the bottom "img".

[Playalot]

*Runs to check that out @KRae*

*edited: nope, must be a TS3 thing, mine are still png's and I use that img link too. It's cool. I can convert them easily enough using the program Carl suggested, I was just thinking about other ways to manage it all.  I've found that converted png's look a little darker and somewhat fuzzy but at the end of the day you can't really tell unless you're looking at a jpg and a png pic side by side.

[sdhoey]

Mine are the same as Plays. But the funny thing is some are jpg but most are png. But I just did the convert program and will do that from now on.

[MarianT]

All my TS3 screenshots were .jpg, but when I started TS4, they became .png.

[Joria]

All my TS3 screenshots were .jpg, but when I started TS4, they became .png.

I never checked my TS3 pics.  Didn't take all that long to convert all the screenies I had, even with going in and redoing the pics posted in one of my stories.  I'll catch up on the other some day, maybe, but for now as soon as I have a screenie folder full I just convert before I upload it to my Mediafire.  Can't remember what my fee is but I have a terrabite of storage for it so no worries about lack of room!

[sone]

I've recently started using imgur, due to frustration with photobucket.  Is there a way for me to upload as jpg, or will it only do png?  I really don't want to go back to photobucket if I don't have to.

[Trip]

I've recently started using imgur, due to frustration with photobucket.  Is there a way for me to upload as jpg, or will it only do png?  I really don't want to go back to photobucket if I don't have to.

@sone: Imgur accepts every common image format for the web (png, jpg, gif, gifv, etc.). So if your pictures are saved to your computer as JPGs, then they'll stay that way on Imgur.

[Deklitch]

@sone I don't use imgur, myself, but thinking of uploading/saving elsewhere, you generally have a 'save as' option or a file type option or something similar. If there is something like that in imgur, see if you can save/upload it as type .jpg rather than as type .png.

I had a quick look at the imgur help pages, but they didn't seem to give much assistance with regards to file types, however it does confirm that you can upload jpg files as well as png files. This article talks about editing images in imgur, maybe the save button there permits 'save as' as well. Note its comment that you can only do such edits on the desktop version, not the mobile or apps versions.

To be honest, I do editing work on my pictures in Microsoft Paint, which definitely does give the option of saving as .jpg, I then upload the images to my own website and take it from there.

[mpart]

Thanks, I will definitely try to do this when I post for now on.
Edit: It seems Ifranview does not want to work on my Mac.
It seems that photo bucket saves them as jpg. I will just continue using that, please correct me if I'm wrong about the jpg. thing.

[MrsFlynn]

@mpart

I searched on photo editors a couple weeks back and did find the one linked below that's for Mac.

PhotoScape -
http://www.photoscape.org/
http://x.photoscape.org/mac/

I don't use it, but figured it might be worth saying something about it, just in case you want to check it out.

I don't think Photobucket changes your file format for you. You have to edit the photo and then save it as a .jpg file then upload it to Photobucket.

MrsFlynn

[mpart]

@mpart

I searched on photo editors a couple weeks back and did find the one linked below that's for Mac.

PhotoScape -
http://www.photoscape.org/
http://x.photoscape.org/mac/

I don't use it, but figured it might be worth saying something about it, just in case you want to check it out.

I don't think Photobucket changes your file format for you. You have to edit the photo and then save it as a .jpg file then upload it to Photobucket.

MrsFlynn

Oh okay, thanks. it seems the files save as jpg when playing sims 3, but not when playing sims 4. Thank you Mrs.Flynn.

[MrsFlynn]

@mpart

You are correct, Sims 3 saves photos in .jpg format and Sims 4 saves photos in .png format.

[Indira]

Finally a solution to my many problems with posting pictures and stories! It's been bugging me for quite some time. A year now, in fact. It bothered me so much that my screenshots took a bit longer to load because of the sizes and the format, hence there have been fewer pictures uploaded. I had to stop with my storytelling for my main family coz I'm too embarrassed to post the large-file pictures. Though I still play them and kept my screenies. I personally don't have any problems regarding storing the pictures in my laptop, still have roughly 967GB of unused storage.

I did ask my ever "helpful" husband about a photo editor similar to one I had on my old laptop, and he was like "be careful what you download, ..viruses.. and blah blah". So he was no help after all.

It's so good of you to post this @Carl . Especially for the non-tech-savvy people like me.

Side Note: I've been using only the Microsoft Editor on my old laptop to resize pictures/pixels and it worked for me before. The files became smaller and easier to load. But this laptop I'm using now (with Window 8.1) doesn't have one. Is it not free? Or unavailable for this?

[MrsFlynn]

Hi Indira,

There should be a program on your computer that's called Paint. Click the Start button and search for the word Paint in the search box. It's a free photo editor that comes with Windows.

There is something similar to paint, called Paint.net it's a free photo editor that is based on Paint. http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

I'm still learning how to use it. But it might be something worth looking into.

MrsFlynn

[Indira]

Gaaahh!! How come I never knew this before? I'm worse than a noob. 
Thanks @MrsFlynn , I knew there is Paint, but I didn't know there was a button needed to be clicked to get into the editing part. Upper right, there is an arrow icon beside the help(?) icon. I could see there is a resize and cropping tool there. Oh man! Those many months I refrained from posting pics much. And it's this easy and already available. **facepalm**

At least now I have two tools I can use for editing screenies. I just hope photobucket fixes itself soon. It's not working right at the moment. Might have to look for other hosts.

[Magpie2012]

I think a lot of people use imgur as opposed to photobucket due to the bandwidth limit on the free photobucket subscription. Maybe look in to that @Indira

Sent from my BlackBerry 9720 using Tapatalk

[MrsFlynn]

@Indira 

I posted this list last year, but updated it to include some photo editors. It also has a list of places that you can use to host your photos.

Photo Sharing, Blog Sites, Webhosting and Online Storage Link Suggestions
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,19426.0.html

I haven't used imgur that much, but it seems to be pretty good photo hosting service.

MrsFlynn

[KRae]

I just want to say that after several days of frustration, Photobucket seems to be functioning again.

[Indira]

That is good news! Thanks @KRae .6

[mpart]

I have been trying to figure out how to alter the files using my mac's photo preview. It seems I can convert photos from png. to jpeg, but not jpg. Are they perhaps the same thing? If not, is it okay to use jpeg files instead?

[Indira]

I think they are the same @mpart

[mpart]

I think they are the same @mpart

Oh okay, thank you.

[Chickwit]

Can I go to cnet directly to download this? I'm worried about viruses etc.

[MrsFlynn]

I'm not sure what you want to download. As there are many photo editing programs talked about in this thread. However I'm going to assume you're talking about InfranView. If so, then yes you can download it from cnet.

http://download.cnet.com/IrfanView/

You can also download other photo editor programs as well. Such as Gimp and Paint.net, PhotoScape. - Scroll to the bottom of the page.

[Chickwit]

Oops, Sorry about that MrsFlynn.

Yes I was talking about Infranview. Thank you.

[Sindocat]

I generally resize (and sometimes adjust brightness and contrast) my images in GIMP (an open-source image editor), and save them at the highest compression available.  Are .pngs that are the same file size as a .jpg (usually between 300 and 600 kb) acceptable? I'm certainly not using the full-size, high rez captures from my game.

[MrsFlynn]

We'd prefer screenshots be posted in .jpg because they're more web friendly for those with limited or bad internet. It also helps with bandwidth and forum resources. Specially if using the forum's attachment system.

[Trip]

@Sindocat: I can get high quality JPGs from GIMP that are under 200kb by saving it at 95% quality. Here's an example.