large

[panfer]

My gif jpag are too large. What is the normal size. is there a good utility to reduce these file sizes.
I am learning. Any help is welcome.

[Jen Worden]

First off, which are too large? Your .gifs or your .jpgs?

The standard rule of thumb is that no page should be larger than about 50k, everything included. The exception is "art" sites but the front page should still follow this rule.

I use Adobe Photoshop + Image Ready to scale down my jpgs - and there really is no substitute for trying a bunch of different settings to get the optimal size/quality ratio.

Gifs are generally, easier to keep down to size and Xara is probably the best option for this.

Hope that helps a bit. If you can get more specific or have post URLs we can look at we can probably be more help!

cfn ... Jen
Jen Worden
Web Developer
www.meadoworks.com

[panfer]

Thanks for the reply
I use photopaint and jpgs are way too huge. I don't have a url yet. Gifs are not that bad.What size should my photos be?

[Jen Worden]

Here's how I reduce image size using Photoshop. I don't know Photopaint but I imagine it will have similar functions. This is assuming your image is larger (in physical size) than your required final image.

1. Reduce dpi size to 72dpi.
2. Create new file with the finished dimension size.
3. Import (drag'n'drop in PS) the reduced image into the new file.
4. Scale image to new size.
5. Apply Sharpen Filter.
6. Save as "web file" which allows for multiple testing before committing to a final product. Alternatively, save at varying %'s to get the right quality/size ratio.

That's pretty much it. If this isn't what you're looking for or require other scenarios just let me know!

cfn ... Jen
Jen Worden
Web Developer
www.meadoworks.com

[Erik Heyninck]

Hi, me too I have Photopaint 9 and I am not very happy with the Jpegs it produces. I compress to 75% of the initial quality, but I think Photopaint automatically reduces the sharpness of the image as this makes the Jpeg file less big.
However, you can download a photoshop compatible plug in that should work in both Xara and Photopaint and that gives you the best Jpeg compression that is possible. It's called ProJPEG 5.0 and is to be found at: www.boxtopsoft.com

It is shareware and has the export disabled in the trial version, but for 49.95$ it is nothing compared to having to buy PS6 to have decent Jpegs.

On www.fractalus.com there is a good explanation on the whats and hows for Gif, Jpeg and Png.

Hope this helps a little too.

[panfer]

Thanks both of you. I will try both the methods( I don't want to spen any money at the moment) and if I have any problems I will come running in a few days time. Thanks once again.
I am trying this one
http://wizard.jpg.com/wizard/jwdownload.asp

[This message was edited by panfer on March 07, 2001 at 07:35 PM.]