Before you can make any changes to your image, you have to first determine if you have the correct software to do so. Many devices now come with software that not only scans the images for you, but also allows you to do basic editing of the image. You may need to check your manuals, but the basic tools you need are the ability to resize and crop your images. If your software doesn't do this, no need to worry! You can find a wide variety of image hosting software at Tucows Software. They have both PC and Macintosh software.

* Please Note: Tucows is software distribution company that is not affiliated with honesty.com in any way. Most software here is licensed under the "Shareware" concept. By using any shareware software, you are granted a 30 day trial period to evaluate the program. If you wish to continue using the software after the trial period, you are obligated to register the software with the author. Registration fee's vary by program, so be sure to make note of any fee's before downloading!

Once you have your software installed, the next step is to fire it up, and start right on an image. All examples here were created using Paint Shop Pro. The software for our digital camera did not include software to edit, so I downloaded an editor. All the pictures of menu's will come directly from that software, but yours may differ slightly depending on the program that your using. The basic concepts will apply to any software though.

After loading my program, the first step I took was opening the image. The menu looks like this:

Where you store and load your images from is a personal choice. You can create any folder to do the job. My suggestion for you though is to use the "My Documents" folder, that is created by Windows. It is very easily accessible from the folder menu or anywhere else. It makes it very difficult to lose your photo's somewhere on your machine when used.

After finding my own "My Documents" directory in the top area, I was able to see all my images. I double clicked on the "pig.jpg" file to open it up. You'll notice that my software also showed me a preview before opening the image. This is quite useful for digital cameras, since they often name the images "ABCDE01.jpg, ABCDE02.jpg, etc." With a preview, you can tell what these images are beforehand. There is no guarantee that your software has this feature, although it is something to consider when downloading a program. Here is a larger version of the image that we will be working with:

Now you may notice that this image is MUCH larger than it needs to be. Some software may even make your pictures twice as big as the one you see above. The first step we need to take in reducing our image is to "Crop" it. If your not familiar with this term, it basically means what we want to do is get rid of all the "extra stuff" in the picture. Since my main focus is on the Pig, and nothing else, I can safely crop out the walls and desktop.

My software has a bar with all the image tools, and I clicked on the crop button . You may instead need to use a selection tool . Again, because of differences in software, you may not have a either of these buttons, or it may look different. If you can't find the option on a tool bar, move your mouse over the various buttons. If you let your mouse hover without moving it for a few seconds, you should see a little box describing what that button's function is.

As I click the button, my mouse cursor has changed. I'm not ready to select the region that I want to crop. I've selected the top left portion that i want to keep, and then dragged it the lower right portion of the image. You will now need to indicate what you want to do with this select region. Along the top of the window, you should see a menu. The option to crop should be under either the Edit menu, or an images menu if there is one present.

After you make your selection, you should see the specified portion of your image disappear. You can see the before and after of my image here:

My image is now a good size, and would be usable on an auction. However, some of you may still have your image too large after cropping it. Or perhaps you didn't really have anything to crop, but the image was till too large. The solution to this is resizing. Resizing is quite simple, as you general specify by how much you wish to reduce the image by. Using my original image, I will show you how to make it usable by reduction.

Before reducing your image, there is one thing that you must check first. If your image was very large when loaded, then your software may have automatically zoomed out to make it fit. This makes it difficult to judge the true size, and often throws people off. Using the zoom tool, you will need to make sure that your image is at either 100%, or at a 1:1 ratio. This is the way it will look for everyone when viewed.

You will again need to look under the Edit menu, or Image menu. Once you select the resize option, you should see options similar to this:

For demonstration purposes, I have shrunk by picture by 75%. It is much smaller than you would probably want for an image. The best way to handle resizing is to do it 25% at time. If the image is still to big, repeat the 25% reduction again. You can repeat this until you have the photo exactly how you want it.

Now that you have the images just how you want them, the final step is saving them. Almost any program will have a "File" menu along the top, from which you can select to save your image. Select the "Save as" option, which allows you to name your images and select a format.

It's in your best interest to name the file something that will let you know what it is without looking at it. For instance, the images in this document are named "Pig", "SaveMenu", "CroppedPig", etc. Without looking at these, I know exactly what they are from the filename. When you are browsing our site looking for images you have saved, this can save you a lot of clicking.

You must also specify the format that you want to use. What you select here is VERY important! Choosing an improper format can bloat your image terrible, or cause it not load for your bidders. The two recommended formats are either GIF or JPG. If you plan to list items in eBay's Gallery, then you must use JPG format.

So the next question is: What if I don't have either of those formats available? The only real solution to this problem is to download new software. If what you have now doesn't support those file types, it is in your best interest to find something that does. You have two choices. You can either go and download a full image editing program, which is usually the easiest. There are also programs written specifically to covert images from one format to another. This requires a second step for each image though, as you have to edit it in one program, then open a second program to convert it.

Now that you have a working image, you may wish to move on to either our One-Step Lister walkthrough, or the Image hosting tutorial.