How to transfer pictures to a CD without any loss of quality

Question

I made some adjustments in Aperture, pictures were shot in RAW and wanted to put them on a Cd for transfer to a relative.
I dragged and dropped and the size reduced from RAW 13-19 mb to 600k jPeg.
I do not have a problem with the jPeg, actually my relative prefers it but I do not want the large reduction in size.
I just got Aperture so please forgive me if I am missing the obvious.
Greg

Answer 1

I do not have a problem with the jPeg, actually my relative prefers it but I do not want the large reduction in size.
To be honest you shouldn't be  concerned with the size of the image you're giving to your friends. What matters is the quality of the image for use they will put it to. If you can get that in a file thats 100 bytes so be it, if that doesn't  give them the quality they need then of course increase the quality. Bit always be thinking in terms of image quality for the intended use not file size.
So are the files you're producing of adequate quality? If not there are two ways to go about increasing the quality.
One is to increase the quality of the previews that Aperture is producing. This will allow you yto continue to drag the images out of Aperture and  not have to go through the export process. To increase the preview quality go to Aperture->Preferences->Previews. You can adjust both image size and JPG compression. Remember changing the preview settings only affects previews made after the change. Previews already in Aperture will not be upgraded . To upgrade current previews you need to force Aperture to re-create them. See the Photos->[Delete/Generate] Previews.
If you can't get the quality you need with previews then you will need to export the images. Then you have complete control over all aspects of the exported image.
Either way remember its the quality of the image not the files size that matters.