<chapter id="sendimages">
<chapterinfo>

<authorgroup>
    <author>
        <firstname>Gilles</firstname><surname>Caulier</surname>
        <affiliation><address><email>caulier dot gilles at gmail dot com</email></address></affiliation>
    </author>
    
    <author>
        <firstname>Gerhard</firstname><surname>Kulzer</surname>
        <affiliation><address><email>gerhard_at_kulzer.net</email></address></affiliation>
    </author>
</authorgroup>

<abstract>
<para>
The Kipi <quote>Send Images</quote> plugin is a tool for sending images directly by e-mail.
</para>
</abstract>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>Kipi</keyword>
</keywordset>
</chapterinfo>

<title>Send Images</title>

<sect1 id="using-plugin-maildialog">
<title>Using the Module</title>
<para>
With this Kipi-plugin you can e-mail the selected images with your favorite e-mail
agent. Resizing images is possible. You can use drag and drop to add more images
to the list of images to send.
</para>

<sect2 id="using-plugin-mail-image-selection">
<title>Image Selection</title>

<para>
When opening the plugin from the host application, the <guilabel>Email Images Options</guilabel>
dialog will appear with your pre-selected images already in the list at the left part
of the dialog.</para> 
<para>
Below the image list there are five buttons. The two left buttons are used to move a selected 
image in the list up or down. The middle button opens a file browser to add more files as needed 
in the usual file selection manner.</para>
<para>
When clicking on the other buttons the selected images will be removed from the list or the list 
will be cleared.
</para>

<tip><para>
You can drag and drop images between the host application window and the image
file list to add new items to e-mail.
</para></tip>

<warning><para>
Be sure not to overload your own or your addressees e-mail transmission limit; most
providers limit the e-mail size to some megabytes of data. Use several e-mails
if you want to send a lot of data.
</para></warning>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="using-plugin-mail-settings">
<title>Mail Settings</title>

<para>
The right part of the dialog is used to change the settings of the images to be sent. These
settings will be remembered when you close the plugin until you change them.
</para>

<para>
Select your favorite e-mail client from the drop-down menu. <guilabel>Default</guilabel> 
is the current email program set in &kde; &systemsettings;.
</para>

<para>
If you select <guilabel>Attach a file with image properties from 
<replaceable>Application</replaceable></guilabel> the comments, rating or tags 
included with the images will be merged to a text file and attached in the mail.
</para>

<para>
The next three items allow you to set-up the image properties to be sent. 
To enable these options check <guilabel>Adjust image properties</guilabel>. 
First select an <guilabel>Image size</guilabel> suitable for your Internet
connection speed and the target mailbox size.
</para>
<para>
The <guilabel>PNG</guilabel> format in the <guilabel>Image file format</guilabel>
drop-down menu is not well adapted to reduce photographic images file size, but
is best suited for compressing lossless items like the TIFF file format.
<guilabel>PNG</guilabel> must be used if you use dialup speed Internet and you want
to preserve the photo quality. Otherwise, <guilabel>JPEG</guilabel> is the
recommended format.
</para>

<para>
The <guilabel>Image quality</guilabel> can be chosen
with the input box. 75% is the standard compression ratio for
<guilabel>JPEG</guilabel> files. Setting compression to 100% will result in
lossless compression at the cost of the largest file size. The difference in file
size between 90% and 100% can be quite dramatic, whereas the gain in quality is
minor. Very good quality is already obtained with 85% compression.
</para>

<note><para>
If you choose <guilabel>JPEG</guilabel> as the <guilabel>Image file format</guilabel>
and the original files were in <guilabel>JPEG</guilabel> format, the original Exif
data included is preserved in e-mailed images.
</para></note>

<figure id="sendimages-mail-dialog">
    <title>The Email Images Dialog</title>
    <mediaobject><imageobject>
      <imagedata srccredit="The Mail Dialog" fileref="sendimages_mail.png"/>
    </imageobject></mediaobject>
</figure>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="using-plugin-emailimagesinaction">
<title>Email Images in Action</title>

<para>
When you have finished selecting your files, click <guibutton>OK</guibutton> to
open the composer window of your favorite e-mail client.
You just need to add the addressee and the subject. The selected images will be
already be listed as attachments.
</para>

<para>
A progress dialog gives you feedback on the progress of your operation. Press the
<guibutton>Cancel</guibutton> button during this stage if you want to abort the
process.
</para>

<para>
When all jobs are completed, this dialog will not close automatically and you can
consult the progress messages if any errors occured during this stage. The mail
agent will be started automatically at the end. Press the <guibutton>Close</guibutton>
button to close this dialog.
</para>

<figure id="sendimages-email-images-plugin">
    <title>The E-mail Images Plugin in Action</title>
    <mediaobject><imageobject>
      <imagedata srccredit="The E-mail Images Plugin in Action" fileref="sendimages_progress.png"/>
    </imageobject></mediaobject>
</figure>
</sect2>

</sect1>

</chapter>

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