>>What happens when you strtofile() the picture to a jpg and look at it with paint, is
>>the quality already lost? Perhaps store it in a general field is causing the
>>situation.

Mike, you can't strtofile() with a general field (the general field contains not just the JPEG in question but a lot of OLE stuff and, i believe, a bitmap of the image).

the only way i know to extract a jpeg from a general field is to include it in a report, print as html, and look for the jpeg (created by the listener) in the same folder as the html output. (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894819/EN-US)

When i look at the image as a general field it is good quality. The jpeg created by the HTML listener is of a lesser quality.

nigel