Not at all meant to make you feel dumb today or on any day. It's sort of like having a different accent in different parts of the country. And besides, I'm sure you know about many things that others like me don't know anything at all about.
The term 'laptop' was used with the earlier models and they were generally considered to be larger, weigh more, and to be more cumbersome. The newer models were smaller and lighter and they needed a new buzz word to make them more desirable, and more costlier, thus 'notebook' was born.
I really think we need to get the exact settings on your scanned images. If they're set too high or too low, it very well could be the problem with your smooshy pictures. Are the pictures on your pc the same size as the paper ones, or smaller, or larger? Do you change the size of them or use them as the scanner sets them?
When you say that the HP ScanJet 'automatically optimizes' the photos for you, it means that the HP scanner people have determined a 'one size fits all' setting that should work Ok for the largest number of people. But if your needs are a little different, it might not be the best setting for you after all. Here's a good DIS comparison - think of a Disney Nightshirt from the Disney catalog in the 'one size fits all' sizing. If you're shorter than most, the 'one size' will be very long, if you're taller than most, the 'one size' will be too short.
I just downloaded your pic to my pc and when I look at the image properties in my graphics software, which is Paint Shop Pro ver 4.15, it shows the image as 1400 x 1749 dpi, at 24 bit color, which is 16 million colors.
And if I set the picture at a 1:1 aspect ratio, it does indeed look SMOOSHY! And for another thing, if you save the picture as a 'jpg' file and if you look at it again in the 'edit' mode, it could become even smooshier, because the jpg format will compress the image even further, because that's what jpg was designed to do, compress images to a smaller size.
So now I think we're on the right track. We need to find the settings in your ScanJet software
that control the dots per inch and save it to a more usable size, such as 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768, whichever you think you would use more often. Personally, I use 800 x 600.
If you are going to resize the picture on your pc or change it by cropping it or something, you might leave it the way it is, then edit your picture, and then save it as 800 x 600 before posting it.
If I just rambled on and confused you, I'm sorry, but I got excited when I could recreate your smooshy symptoms.
Now, the next step is to have you scan the same picture into your computer again, but to stop short of using the automatic settings and for you to specify something like 800 x 600 instead. Then upload it your website using a different name and post it so you can compare the two. Then rate the new pic for smooshiness.
If you can't find the way to change the scan settings, tell me what's on your screen and we'll go from there. I have an HP Officejet G55 so our software may not be exactly the same, but we can try.