Posting Images

[Goober101]

How do you stick an image into your text. I know the icon is there but I don't understand the insert text part.

xxx

What am I suppose to do with this?

[egerie]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=28184

[Goober101]

What if I don't have photoshop. Do I save as a GIF?

[SeraphSword]

Just use what ever scanner software you have, and save as a jpeg. If you need to resize I would suggest downloading irfanview. You can get it free from download.com I believe.

[MuffinMan]

saving as a gif will probably increase the file size, since a gif file is a format for an animated image.

[Pontemonti]

saving as a gif will probably increase the file size, since a gif file is a format for an animated image.
GIF is not necessary a format for an animated image, but it does handle animation. GIF has the limitation of being max 256 colors (it is possible to choose which 256 colors you want), but as long as your image doesn't have more colors than that it is possible to save it lossless. GIF also handles transparency.
JPEG on the other hand supports many more colors, but uses compression which can make the image look bad. This is most likely the format you will want to use when posting an image on the Internet...

[egerie]

What Pontemonti said plus :

Usually pictures or artwork with lots of colours / smooth gradients = .JPG format. The artefacts are lost in the details and the image can stay relatively light.

Few colours / linework / pixel art / transparency / clean, crisp art / animated or not = .GIF

.PNGs are also very nice to have and can be better then Jpeg or GIF in some instances. (8 bits and lower OR 24 bits)
A good way to evaluate what's best for your images is to "Save for Web" in photoshop (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S). Go on the 4up tab and choose 3 different types of file format, play with your colour numbers if you go 4 or 8 bits and you can compare the compression effect from the original and with each other.

Ex :
http://www.artbyaline.com/forum/saveforweb.gif
(this image is around 39K, saved as GIF in 8 bits=256 colors to keep pixel crispness and isn't too heavy compared to a JPG for similar results.)

Even if you don't have photoshop handy, the same principles apply to other programs. Choose the file format appropriately, try to balance your image quality with weight and off you go ! Remember to keep your stuff at 72 dpi for web display. With a little practice it won't be too long before you get comfortable with this, and if you need pointers or have questions, don't hesitate !