Compression and Resizing

[jwb]

So here is the result of Web -- Large in the Export feature:     640 x 428, 209K

I like this better than what the shareware did -- note that it somehow turned the seam to the left of the door on the box into a dotted line. On the other hand, I really admire some of the dimensionally bigger photos posted by some of the guys here that are still in the 60-70K range. I'd love to know what they do.

[faraway]

My photoshop elements 10 has two independent criteria to control the file size. The first one is the resolution usually set to 1024 * 768 on my posted photos and the second is the quality of the JPEG file. It is set to medium (6) resulting in files about 200kB. The quality effects the strength of compression good for size but bad for details.

[doctorwayne]

My good friend Charlie alerted me to the free Powertoy Image Resizer for Windows XP. There is, perhaps, some info HERE on both it and something for other operating systems.
It's extremely easy to use, simply right click on the image and an options menu appears. You can save the original (or not) re-size to either pre-set options or custom ones of your choosing, re-size sequences of images, random ones from a file, or entire files almost instantly. I re-sized a number of 400- or 500-image files in seconds. I use it for all my images placed in the Big Blue Gallery, and anytime I want to send an image as an e-mail attachment.

Wayne

[MasonJar]

JWB -

The bigger dimensions with lower file size are a result of tweaking to see what you can get away with. Screen resolution is about 72dpi, so higher will not get any better to look at (printing is a different issue, requiring 300+ dpi for decent results).

The limits for the gallery (not sure if attachments are governed by the same limits) are:

Maximum file size (bytes): 250000
Maximum image width (pixels): 2000
Maximum image height (pixels): 2000

So you should be able to put up at least a 1024 x 768 (approx) image if you can get it under 250kB. So start by resizing to 1024 x 768 (most screens aren't set for more than this, so stick to this size to avoid people scrolling and/or complaining). Then use the compression or "quality" slider to reduce the file size. If you go too far, your picture will look pretty bad.

Trial and error is your friend.


Andrew

[doctorwayne]

Here are three re-sized versions of the same photo.

This is "Small" from the re-sizer, at 48.7kb:

[album]4253[/album]

This one is "Medium", at 76.8kb:

[album]4254[/album]

...and the "Large" version, at 99.1kb:

[album]4255[/album]

The original photo, at 817kb, was too big to be accepted by the Gallery.
If you click on the first photo, the area surrounding the image changes, but the picture stays the same. However, if you click on the second or third versions, you're presented with an option to enlarge the view. Doing so on the second one gives a slightly larger image, while the enlargement of #3 requires the viewer to scroll in order to see the entire image. When placing images in the Gallery, I use the medium size, as having to scroll is annoying.
For just general picture posting, I usually use images from my free photobucket account - you can upload your un-resized photos there, and they're automatically re-sized when you place them here.

Here's the photobucket version of the original 817kb photo:




Wayne