How do I do this?

[Les Feinstein]

This question pertains to photo files from my camera, but is probably
applicable to scanned files also.
I recently acquired a very nice 5 MP digital camera, and as expected,
the files it produces in any of the high res modes are quite large (in
SHQ, the files are 2569x1920 pixels).
For most of my pictures, I prefer to print at 4x6 inches and
approximately 250 dpi. My question is, what's the proper way to resize
these huge files so that I can print at the smaller size and lower
resolutions, without losing information (is this even possible?)?
I have at my disposal several image processing programs: PSP (an older
version), MS Photo Editor, IrfanView (of course), XNView, cPicture,
and a few that came with my scanner and camera. I would like to work
with one of these, so please don't give me instructions for doing this
in Photoshop,
Thanks for your help.

 

[John]

This question pertains to photo files from my camera, but is probably

applicable to scanned files also.
I recently acquired a very nice 5 MP digital camera, and as expected,
the files it produces in any of the high res modes are quite large (in
SHQ, the files are 2569x1920 pixels).
For most of my pictures, I prefer to print at 4x6 inches and
approximately 250 dpi. My question is, what's the proper way to resize
these huge files so that I can print at the smaller size and lower
resolutions, without losing information (is this even possible?)?
I have at my disposal several image processing programs: PSP (an older
version), MS Photo Editor, IrfanView (of course), XNView, cPicture,
and a few that came with my scanner and camera. I would like to work
with one of these, so please don't give me instructions for doing this
in Photoshop,
Thanks for your help.

I recently installed IrfanView but haven't played it yet, but
Image | Resize/Resample seems to do what you want to do.
At 250 dpi the ideal dimensions are 1500 x 1000. Change
the DPI to 250 & set the width to 1500. Make sure
"Preserve aspect ratio" is checked and let IrfanView
change the Height.

good luck!

 

[Les Feinstein]

I recently installed IrfanView but haven't played it yet, but
Image | Resize/Resample seems to do what you want to do.
At 250 dpi the ideal dimensions are 1500 x 1000. Change
the DPI to 250 & set the width to 1500. Make sure
"Preserve aspect ratio" is checked and let IrfanView
change the Height.

good luck!

Thank you.