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The Number One Rule: don't play around with your only file copy of an image. Relabel your best digital image as a "Master" file/folder and don't do anything to it except duplicate it. Then do your work on the duplicate. If things go awry, all you've lost is your time.
My understanding is that most of the degradation in quality occurs with multiple resizings of an image. When you make an image smaller, the software has to decide which pixels to "throw away" to accommodate the downsizing. When you enlarge an image, the software has to fill in the gaps by interpolating information from the surrounding pixels in the original file. The processes are not precise reversals of each other, so if you repeatedly resize a file, you begin to accumulate a lot of information that is based on the computer's educated guesses, rather than on your original work.
And so, if I want to print a notecard, a bookmark and a business card, and send an e-mail attachment, all using the same image, I start each of those projects with a fresh duplicate copy of the original, rather than serially tweaking one image.
That's just the tip of it, but someone on better terms with computers than I am will have to step in at this point.
[Such as Cynthia, who arrived while I was typing my note.]
Good luck
Steven
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