Does anyone know how to take a 16GB SD card that might have 2GB, 3GB Max and image it and shrink it so it will fit on a 4GB card?  Probably has to be done in Windows because I don't have a 'nix machine with a reader in it.

Gparted live CD/USB (or ubuntu Live which has gparted)? Resize partition to 2-3GB.

Then use Win32DiskImager to create an image then write an image. Or dd if you're still on the live CD.

ah that may work!  I wonder if GParted is hard to use?  I will make a good full image and then fuck with that!

It's really easy to use. If you've got a fairly recent ubuntu livecd it's on there too.

You could also try filesystem archiver if for some reason you don't want to risk messing up the original SD (all it does is read it without modifying anything). FSA doesn't copy free space, and does a pretty good job of preserving the volume layout in the original file format (you can also change the fs on the fly if desired). It's a command-line utility, but really simple to use and faster than resizing the partition. You also get an archive you could restore from later.

I think it's also onboard recent ubuntu live cd's, if not it's on System Rescue CD (which is a very good all around thing to have around).

Thanks, I will give that a try first because our internet is so slow today I can't get gparted to download!

Doesn't look like there is a Windows version?

Nope, it runs in linux. If you already have a live cd kicking around you can boot up that and add fsa through the package manager (but will only persist for the session). Or you could install it into a virtual machine for persistence.

I don't have a live iso laying around.  I'll try gparted one more time and see if it will finish before the end of the day!