[handselart]

My laptop has developed an issue where any image that is rotated is distorted, elongated or expanded. This occurs in all my picture viewing programs and the editing software for my camera. The file is not corrupted because i can take the image to another computer and it displays just fine.
Please can anyone help me remedy this?

[ChuckE]

Usually, it depends upon the viewing program used on the computer in question. If they are all using the same program, then the issue may be a hardware problem.

If you are using different programs, then some programs may default to expand (or shrink) an image to fill the window or screen. That could easily distort the viewing.

You might consider either checking the settings of your viewing program to not shrink (or expand) to fit, but to maintain the original aspect ratio of the original picture. That way, rotating the image will not get distorted.

You might find that the excellent, free image viewer IrfanView is not only fast and does exactly what I have already mentioned, but it has some really great abilities to do some tricky stuff too. IrfanView is not the best of image editors, it is an image viewer first; and an editor second.

IrfanView is highly recommended.

[handselart]

Thanks ChuckE, I appreciate the response. The Gateway people claim that their machine is not liable because they do not provide hlep w photos. NVIDIA suggest checking the drivers. And It will cost me to have microsoft say its Vista.
I feel it has to be something systemic because everything from my Olympus editing gear to Expression Web is doing it. Does any of this suggest something?
Thank you for the help.

[ChuckE]

If other machines have no problems with the display, what is different with your PC?

BTW, any computer company is going to deny fault, since they just sell hardware. There is little that either the hardware or software people are going to do for you, given such little detail, and the little likelihood that the issue is systemic.

Having you come here (or other supportive boards) is the about best bet you are going have in resolving the issue. Probably the best bet would be for a friend/neighbor/geek come by your house and assist you in diagnosing the problem.

If you give good details here, I am sure you can resolve your issue, as long as you can follow directions.

[ChuckE]

Another point, you mention that you have this issue with your Olympus editing software. While I am sure that their editing software might be very good, and very handy, I will bet it is just a setting in the editing software as to how images get displayed.

Why don't you just try opening those images with something else?

When I get various cameras and cams, and load their software, I will not default the imaging opening or even the downloading of files to their software. You do not have to use their software to work with images at all. You can selectively use their software when you want - not when THEY want.

[handselart]

Spot on, Mr. E. But the image is screwy where ever I open it. I do use the olympus gear to import but even stuff i've imported months ago acts similarly. (from other cameras) something has changed in my machine. I'm not experienced enough to know what up.
I've poked around in the device manager and settings but am just a little stupid to feel good digging further into the bowels, registries. Does this sound like a driver issue? Does this sound like I may have to reinstall Vista? I don't know enough to start rewriting stuff. I don't think that new software is the answer though I have read good stuff about infrathing.
I appreciate your attention and I'm oddly gratified that I can't seem to find an easy resolution. Of course not as gratified as if i could fix it.
Thank you, sir. I'll use all the help i can get.

[ChuckE]

I seriously doubt you'll have to reload Vista - that is just too drastic, even for this. I do not think you should consider digging around in the registry. Not only is that for the much more experienced, but there is little that you can do there that you can't already do with the controls that the software already provides.

How about telling us the name of the software, and version, you are using that exhibits this problem. Sometimes the image editing software that comes with cameras can be downloaded for free. Or, perhaps someone here has that same software and they can understand your problem and may have a solution.

Not sure about your description of where, or when, your image is "screwy." Are you saying the image is screwy in all computers that you have access to? or are you saying that images, even from other sources, appear screwy on this one PC? or what?

In either case, do you think you can place a picture or two, that appear screwy, here in the message? If you just click the [Go Advanced] button, when you go to reply. Once there you should be able to find the [Attachments] button. You will be limited to only a 300k JPG file size, but you can put it into a Zip format. Zip compressing a JPG will NOT gain you much space (it is already compressed), but Zip format attachments have a 500k limit.

Oh, one last point. Really, really, really consider using another image viewer. I have already mentioned IrfanView, have you tried it yet?

[handselart]

I have not tried infranview yet. Ms finally got back and i was able to send a screenshot that I copied to myself and saved on this machine's desktop. I'll see can i attach it here.

I see it attached but it doesn't seem to open.

The images are distorted in any image viewing program: WPG, ms digital, olympus. The affected icons are even skinny. On that computer. this screen shot that either is or is not attached seemed to carry the problem with it but I have been able to take a photo on my thumb drive to this machine to forward w mail that looked fine.
If this attachment does not work I'll try from the other machine. I have to juggle outlook and webmail between machines.

I appreciate your attention. And i will consider infranview. thank you.

[handselart]

Yeah, that attached. Being unable to rotate it makes the issue less evident. When going from horizontal to vertical the image is either elongated or compressed.

[buck52]

the image in the screen shot looks fine to me although it a rather peculiar size..

have you cropped or edited this photo at all?

[handselart]

yes, I rotated it 90% to the left. I'm trying to attach it rotated back to its original so the difference is more evident. Hope this works. It wouldn't zip like last time.
Thanks

[ChuckE]

I see the image absolutely fine. Like already said, it is a peculiar image size, being 1080x1920 pixels, but it shows with no distortion here. Because the image is 1920 pixels tall, and more than what my current monitor has, IrfanView does show it reduced (to 46%) on my monitor, but it does look fine, and not distorted.

That size, by the way, is the same numbers that an HDTV would have (assuming you have a 1080 set, and not a 720). Obviously, though, the aspect (more high than wide) of the image is wrong for full display on an HDTV. I don't think you'd want the image rotated, would you? why have the girl on her side?

The names of the "image viewing programs" are what? I'm not sure what you mean.

WPG = WordPerfect Graphics? If so, then while I do not have it here, probably uses frames to place images inside WordPerfect documents. You should not rely on frames to get exactly what you want unless your frames are correctly set to preserve the aspect ratio.

ms digital = are you talking about Microsoft Digital Image Suite? if so, that is a discontinued product. For anybody who wants to download a 60 day trial version of version 11.1 can do so at Microsoft Digital Image Starter Edition 2006. However it is a 110MB download.

olympus = ? what is that? what version is it? The software that I used to have with an Olympus camera had a name, I believe it was called Camedia, or something like that. If you want anyone to look into more details, then you have to supply more details.

Here's another question... what about images you see on your affected PC that are on webpages? are they distorted as well?
What do you see if you go to this page?:
http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourk...estpatt_in.jpg
are the contained circles perfectly round?

[handselart]

Thanks for your time. I really do appreciate it. The wasp page is not a perfect circle on my laptop and the last thumbnail w julie on her side was the original and its not distorted. On my other machine everything looks fine. The viewing programs I referred to are windows photo gallery, microsoft digital image starter 2, and olympus master 2.
Its entirely possible I'm not doing a screen shot correctly but the images, on this machine are stretched vertically. I compare what I've sent on my desktop computer and it looks ok. but then I knew that because I could take the image on a thumb drive and move them over to mail w outlook and they are fine. Images on my thumbdrive that i rotated months ago appear stretched on this laptop. It does it in paint too.
I'm really trying to share all I know cause I am dumb as a stump and want to fix this stuff.
Does any of this shed better light? Thanks much!

[ChuckE]

Stop stop stop stop!
You already said that the webpage, of the circles I directed you to, were not perfect circles.
That already tells me that your display setting on your laptop computer is not correct.

Now, if you'll just tell me what computer model you have and I think we'll have this solved. I need to find out what the native resolution of your laptop screen is.

Oh, also, tell me the current setting of your screen's resolution is. You really want the native (the actual quantity of pixels that make up the screen) resolution and the display resolution setting to be the same.

Here is how to find your current screen setting is:
With WinXP: right click an open area of your desktop and select [Properties],
then click the "Settings" tab.
What is the "Screen resolution" setting at?

or
With WinVista: right click an open area of your desktop and select [Personalize],
(here I'm going to assume you have the same menu setup I have),
on that screen select "Display Settings."
What is the "Resolution" setting at?

[handselart]

Mr. E, my display settings are/is 1280 x 720.
Thank you.