How to download photos/images from inventory

I have several photos/images which in the past I uploaded to SL, as well as photos given to me in SL. I'd like to download them preserving the original aspect ratio and resolution, but can't seem to do it. Save as 'texture' messes with the aspect ratio.

I guess the first question is when I uploaded an image, was it stored on the SL system in altered form so I can't get it as it was uploaded?

To me, the whole system for images is screwy, since aspect ratios are important. For example, when viewing the image in Profile, the window presented is not square. That's why I uploaded an image using almost the same aspect ratio -- when viewed in Profile it looks correct. But if I view the image itself in inventory, it is presented in a square window and looks funky, and if downloaded as a texture preserves this funky squareness.

In essence, all messed up.

So is there a way to download the images in their stored resolution/aspect ratio?

When you upload an image at any dimension, SL will resize it to the nearest power of 2 (rounded down I think). So if you upload a 400x400 it'll end up as a 256x256 texture and that's what you end up with when you pick "Save Texture As".

If you upload a 512x512 texture and apply it to a prim that's 4mx3m then you get an aspect ratio of 4:3. If you apply the same texture to a 8mx4.5m you get a 16:9 ratio.

If you took a snapshot at a resolution of 1024x768, SL will upload it as a 512x512 so in order to restore the proper aspect ratio you'd save it and resize the vertical so the image becomes 512x384.

Thanks for the explanation, Kitty.

I recall when I was experimenting with uploading an image for my profile, that the uploaded portrait image should be in the same aspect ratio as that used for the profile portrait frame, which is unfortunately not square

I believe that is incorrect. If I recall correctly, it will save images to multiples of 256, either rectangular or square shapes, so a 1024x768 should stay that size.