Posting Screenshots

[Snoteye]

To do this we'll first need to convert the screenshots from the Targa file type to something more reasonable.

If you don't already have an image editing tool (aside from MS Paint, which doesn't supprt .TGA file types), either grab IrfanView or head over here and snatch GIMP. The former is a lot smaller and easier to use, but lacks mostly all of the features available in the latter, save from the most basic ones (crop, scale and a few select effects). It's nonetheless excellent for what we'll be using it for, so if you don't plan on using the program for anything else don't bother getting GIMP.

When you've read through the above ramblings, convert the screenshot to either .GIF or .JPG. I personally prefer the latter as .GIF only supports 256 colours. With that said, however, the diversity of colour shades in EfU is so small that, unless the focus of the screenshot is on specific detail (like spell effects), this shouldn't be a real problem. Your biggest concern should be the size of the converted image; think of the poor 56k'ers out there. Generally, in this case, .GIF is the way to go.*


Hosting
Will, in this example, be handled by ImageShack. There are many other free image hosts out there, Photobucket being one of them, but ImageShack has a lot of neat features. Besides, that yellow frog is hawt!

Right, now; load up ImageShack. You'll see that you can already now upload images, without even registering - which is cool. But don't. You'll forever regret it if you don't register right away; it'll make your life so much easier. So press the My Images link in the top-right corner and register. Note that, whenever you get the email, you'll want to bookmark the registration link provided in it - again, to make your life easier.

After clicking the registration link, click the Upload Images link just below and to the right of the frog. Now, unless you're actually playing on a 15" monitor, resizing the image might be worth considering. If whatever text there might be is non-essential, going all the way down to 800x600 normally isn't a problem (though, to preserve some amount of detail, you shouldn't downscale with more than 1 monitor size, maximum 2, unless there's really no doubt about what's going on). Now, that checkbox below the resize options - remember the neat features? This is one of them, and it's enabled by default, so don't check it. It is, afterall, nice to know if you're facing a 1600x1200 overkill screenshot, or a mere 100x100 avatar.

If you have any trouble uploading, chances are it's because of your browser. I've found that ImageShack won't let me upload with Firefox, but everything else works. To upload I have to use Internet Explorer.


Posting
Which was sort of the whole point with this post. In total, there are 3 ways in which this can be done, all of which are fairly simple. I won't, however, cover the one of them, since the 2 others are superior by far.

Press the My Images link again. In the latter half of 2006, the ImageShack site has had its layout changed a bit, but if you locate and click Classic View at the bottom of the Action toolbar to the right you'll use the old layout instead.

Default layout
Clicking My Images using the default layout will list thumbnails of up to 40 images a page in a 5 by 8 matrix (I don't think there's a way to change this). To the right of each thumbnail are 5 buttons: Share It; Image Details; Delete; Make Private; and Edit Image, respectively. You can also right click the thumbnails to access the same functions as well as a few others.

So, right click and choose Share it or click the button. This will bring up a small popup displaying a thumbnail of the image selected as well as a total of 6 codes for posting it. The 2 codes named Forums are of interest. The first one, under Embeddable Code, is a standard IMG tag. It'll link the image directly in the post, resizing it to fit the board width if it's too wide. Clicking it'll result in a pop-up window with the right sized image.
Like this:


The second code, the one under Thumbnail Code, is (did you guess it?) a thumbnail. In fact, it's the exact same thumbnail showed to the left of all the codes, and clicking it will link to the actual image.
Like this:

I personally prefer this one to the other, not only because it takes up less bandwidth, but also because a small image is usually less distracting. It also has the added bonus of letting the viewers see the resolution and image size before forcing them to download the image.


Classic layout
By default, the classic layout will display up to 15 thumbnails a page along with their associated codes. Clicking List View in the middle of the toolbar (right below the page listing) will remove the codes and the thumbnails, and instead list the (still only 15) images along with a few image specific details. To get the code here you'll have to click the Get Code link associated with the image you want to post. Clicking Thumb View will revert to the default classic layout.

The codes you'll want to use are the same as with the new (default) layout, and the result is the same. Note, though, that if you're using list view (and thus have to click the Get Code link), the codes you're looking for are Thumbnail for forums (1) and Hotlink for forums (1), respectively.


*Keyword being 'generally'. It's been my experience that ImageShack tends to compress images in a way that makes .JPG files significantly smaller than .GIF files. So stick with .JPG.


Addendum: If you insist on using Photobucket for hosting you should note that it will automatically resize any images exceeding the 1 MB file size limit. For some reason it'll not simply downscale  until the picture is smaller than 1 MB; rather,  it'll exaggerate to a point that is mind-numbingly ridiculous, rendering images that are only slightly too large almost indiscernible. As opposed to ImageShack, .JPG files have it the hardest, here.

However, the really important part is something I recently discovered: By default or not, I don't know, but my Max Picture Size under account options (in the top-right corner) was set to 256 KB. You should check here, and make sure it's set to 1 MB to avoid resizing.

Furthermore, Photobucket won't allow you to resize images upon uploading, and it'll only generate one code you can (should) use; the IMG tag like the one from ImageShack.

[Sternhund]

I highly recommend using //www.imgur.com for your host.

[Aethereal]

Update:

It would seem that Imageshack has recently converted to a premium model, and no longer offers free image hosting!