High-quality Images, Without Large File Sizes
(good for legacies and pic spams)
Info: Have you ever wanted to have really pretty, crisp images, but you don't want people with slow internet to suffer when having to load them? Here's a way to keep the quality but minimize the file size.
Photoshop required, however I would think it would be available to use in other programs.Warning: Images are random sizes and some are large. I couldn't really figure out a way to make them all the same size without diverting the focus or making them too small. They are also pixelated from
Photobucket,
not from using this method.
When you are ready to save your image, go to File > Save for Web
A window should appear. The top tabs are your viewing options. I'd recommend using 2-up or 4-up. I use 4-up, as you can see.
In the drop down menu on the right, choose JPEG. JPEGs are good for quality and can be very small file sizes.
Contrary to what you may believe, you can also save files in this way if they have transparent pieces. You just have to choose PNG as the format rather than JPEG. Whether you choose 8 or 24 depends on what sort of colors are in your image. If you choose 8 and it doesn't look right, choose 24, simple as that. But please note that choosing 24 causes the file size to be slightly larger, so be sure to choose 8 as often as possible.
Now, in the quality drop down, drag the arrow all the way to 100. Make sure that Optimized is checked.
As you can see, the file size went from 517K to 93.84K.
You are ready to save. I would recommend having a separate folder for your "saved for web" images, so you can still have the unchanged originals. If you have multiple layers in your file, it is ALWAYS a good idea to save a back up PSD file in case you want to make changes! I haven't noticed specifically, but I would assume flattening your image before you save this way makes the file size smaller.
If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.
Topic: Tutorial: High-quality Images, Without Large File Sizes (Read 3737 times)