OK, so it can be a freak-out moment... you've overcome your fear of actually adding something to the gumboot, and were doing fine until you had to do the picture thing....

"What the heck are pixels anyway?" I hear you mutter, "and how on earth am I meant to get it to be only 300 of the stupid things?"

First, the pixel thing:
A pixel (short for picture element, using the common abbreviation pix for picture) is a single point in a graphic image. Generally speaking, the more pixels that are used to represent an image, the better the picture quality. (Definition somewhat abbreviated from Wikepedia.)

Pixel counts give the number of pixels in an image. This can be expressed as a single number, as in a "three-megapixel" digital camera, which has a nominal three million pixels, or as a pair of numbers, as in 600 by 480. This second description is telling us that the picture has 6oo pixels from side to side and 480 from top to bottom (and therefore has a total number of 600 × 480 = 288,000 pixels or 0.288 megapixels).

When the gumboot prompt asks you to make your pictures either 300, 600, 0r 800 pixels wide, it is simply asking you to size the picture for upload and display. Usually this means making it smaller than the original.

Making it so:
The place to start is to check out the current properties of your picture. This can usually be done very easily. On a PC, just place your cursor over the file icon (without opening the file up), and the details should be displayed (e.g. Dimensions: 345 x 480, Size: 30 KB). On a Mac, iPhoto will tell you the specs.

Should you need to resize it's not too hard, I promise! If you have a digital camera it is likely that you have some sort of a photo-manipulation package (it may even have been included with your camera software). Otherwise, on a PC Windows has the Picture & Fax viewer built in, which you can use in conjunction with Paint to manipulate your image. The Mac version is iPhoto. All you need to do is find the re-size function and make it so! Note: you may want to save the re-sized image with a new file-name.

If you are using a scanner to digitize your photo, simply select the required size of image at the time, or manipulate it as above.

And then, if you are really stuck, email your frustration or picture directly to Robyn or Deb (thegumboot.ca) and we will be happy to help out.

A note on Masthead images:
As you will no doubt have noticed, the Masthead (top picture) of the gumboot changes regularly. You too can see your picture in this prime position – however it must be suitable for the banner shape and text-wrap stuff that happens. So, when you are thinking about submitting a Masthead picture (or composing it, for that matter) please consider that the main subject should be to the right of centre, and that the image will be cropped to 800 x 120 pixels.

Happy snapping / re-sizing!!