Prevent Outlook 2010 Insert Picture resizing image

Question

When I "Insert Picture" a JPEG in Outlook 2010 it automatically resizes the image and, I think, recompresses it too. I realise this would be useful for photographs or for people who try to email 1MB BMPs but I would like to email around an image at the original pixel size without recompression. Is there a way to turn this off, or better still choose settings for each image insert?

I found this page in the Office help. It's for Word, PowerPoint and Excel not Outlook but points you at File, Options, Advanced, Image Settings. There's no equivalent section in Outlook. I know Outlook uses Word as its editor so I've looked at Word's settings but there isn't an 'original size' here: there's only 'turn off image recompression' and pick target DPI from 96, 150, 220. I guess Office is finding a DPI value in the JPEG file and scaling it up or down to match this setting. I can't find an equivalent option in Outlook's options menu but there's so many settings and pop-up dialogs I may have missed something.

Picture Format, Reset image size resets the image to the rescaled version, not the original. I can't see a way to edit a pixel value into size values in the image properties after insert.

Thanks! I realise I can probably achieve this by editing the image metadata in PhotoShop elements or similar but there ought to be a way without editing the file? This is new behaviour in Outlook 2010; 2007 didn't do this.

Answer 1

When you use the Insert / Picture feature to insert an inline image, Outlook (and other MS apps such as Word and Excel) will look at the DPI setting in the image file. If your picture has a DPI setting of anything other than 96, Outlook will resize (i.e., scale and resample) your image (permanently) to 96 DPI upon insertion and there isn't much you can do about it after the fact.

The way to avoid this problem altogether is to open the image in a good image editor, set the DPI value to 96 DPI, and then save the image. If you do not resample the image when you do this, a good image editor will in no way affect the actual image content (i.e., it will remain pixel for pixel identical). After you do this, when you insert the image into an Outlook e-mail, Outlook will show it (and send it) in its original size, unless you manually resize / scale it. This is how you avoid the gratuitous "Outlook scaling, blurring, and destroying your pristine image," issue.

Searching for ways to resolve this problem took me quite a bit of time and effort. I would like to thank the following informative web site for describing both the origin of this problem and its solution:

Image resizes and becomes unsharp upon sending.

Update: The 96 dpi mentioned in my answer above is not fixed. In Windows, you can choose to set the DPI value to other settings using for example, Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Display in Windows 7. This change affects the DPI value that MS Office products use.

If your text size is set to something other than "Smaller" (i.e., 100% / 96 DPI), you will have to use a DPI setting other than 96 DPI, depending on the text scaling factor you have set. This is especially true on laptops where people tend to use larger text settings, because their screens are much smaller (often set this way right out of the factory). For example, if you are using Medium size text (i.e., 125% of the 96 DPI value), your images will have to have their DPI setting changed to 120 in order not to get rescaled/resampled when inserted into Outlook.

The moral of the story is that if you use 96 DPI and see that your inserted images are still coming out blurry, check your Text Size settings in Windows and adjust the DPI value accordingly.

Answer 2

Don't mean to be a necromancer on this question but none of the above solutions solved this issue for me. The only way I was able to solve the issue was by deleting the following key:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Word\Data\SettingsWordMail

After five years of having this issue, I can gladly say I have finally figured out which key was causing the problem, greatly reducing my blood pressure.

Answer 3

I'm using Windows 7, and have been trying to copy a selection from Excel 2007 to an email in Outlook 2007. When I do this, and select "paste as picture" from the options offered, it looks perfect. But once the email is sent (and Outlook compresses the picture), it looks like total garbage. It's mind boggling that anyone at MS could believe this default behavior is acceptable.

The solution in this case is to paste from Excel into MS Paint, then COPY the selection from Paint (no need to select again, since it's already selected after the paste), and paste into Outlook. Passing the image through MS Paint somehow resolves this problem, at least under these specific circumstances.

I would suggest always TEST sending any image, before sending it out officially.

Answer 4

My solution is without resizing/resampling the picture. Tested on Outlook 2007.

After inserting the picture set the text wrapping mode to In Front of Text instead of Inline with Text.

This may require a couple of more steps to position your picture properly but it seems to be simpler than changing the DPI and saving the image.

The default wrapping mode can be set in tools, options, mail format, editor options, advanced, insert/paste picture as.

Answer 5

What about using Insert File and attaching it that way. It won't put it in the actual message, and outlook won't try to resize it.

There is a setting for attached pictures to resize them, but it should give you the option.

If you do need it in the bottom, you can right-click the picture and go to Format Picture. From there go to the Crop tab, and you can adjust the size of the picture there.