Preserved Topic: Best program for optimizing graphics

First of all, I would like to thank everyone that responded to my last inquiry (Help! ? Stupid Basic HTML), you - all da best!

Next question for everyone... what is the best program for optimizing graphics? I am having some issues with Photoshop 5.5, in the sense that the picts. are coming out slightly blurred. Should I not be using Photoshop 5.5 and/or is Photoshop 6 any better?



natazha

Program is nothing, skillz is everything... Photoshop is great for doing these stuff... doesn't matter 5.5 or 6... Try sharpening or something

nat - if all you are talking about for optimisation is saving an image as gif or jpg for the web, then photoshop (5.5 or 6) should be all you need.
file > save for web (crtl+alt+shift+s)
it should have at least two windows, one being the image you have, and the other being the optimised version. that way you can choose how much quality you are losing as you chop down the image quality or colour depth.

do you know what i'm talkin' bout here?


___________________
b u n c h a p i x e l s

Karn is right that version 5.5 vs. version 6.0 means nothing (although I might disagree about the 'skillz' bit...)

It depends greatly on what you are trying to do, but Photoshop is, without a doubt, one of the greatest image editng programs available, period.

If you are getting blurry images it is quite likely due to your methods or the source images themselves, and not due to any shortcoming of Photoshop.

Please tell us what exactly you are trying to accomplish and we may be able to help...

Well, I have a large image that I would like to use on a homepage. I don?t want the user to wait forever for the graphic to download, so I optimize it (maybe too much) in order to reduce download time. Is there anyway to display a large image without having to optimize too much?

natazha

Well, you can try slicing it. That only works up to a point however, as the browser delays loading each image.

There's a great IR tutorial on GN that shows you around slices wonderfully.

If you have a big pic it is just gonna take time to download... no matter how ya slice it... here, i found this thread.... read what the Good Doc says about slicing... http://www.ozoneasylum.com/Forum4/HTML/000003.html

I guess if you the artist want to post a large file on your home page then the viewer will have to wait for it to download.

Some artists have separate sites. One that is WOW and in your face and the other that has small images for those poor shmucks without high bandwidth. I have to say it is a bit philosophical... We are at a point where more people have higher band width, so pushing that limit only seems natural. On the other hand... if you want to post your resume and hope that the pointy haired future boss with his dial up AOL account will wait to view your site is something to consider.

Back to your question. Photoshop should do a great job at optimizing your image. Just play with the settings to get the quality you are looking for.


Cheers!

How do I slice the image? is this something that can be done via photoshop?

natazha

A full version of Photoshop 5.5 or 6 will come with a version of ImageReady -- a quick Google search on "imageready slice tutorial" or some such will probably get you sorted out in no time. The main Photoshop program has a few of ImageReady's features, and ImageReady has many of Photoshop's, but the ideal workflow is to create the main graphic in Photoshop, then do anything web-related in ImageReady (slicing, optimizing, animation, image maps, etc.)

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-07-2002).]

or you could read an very goot toot by JKM at http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorials/photoshop/irslicing1.html

depending on what exactly you want,the bottom line is this: bigger picture > bigger image.
so you have a few options:

1) divide the image into more gif friendly bits, and more jpeg friendly bits, and save each individual bit. here is a quick example of that - text areas are gif, photo are jpeg, yet it looks like the one image.
2) make the image smaller.
3) try to replace some bits with actual html and text - text bits, area with solid colour, etc.

otherwise, it's still the usual quality vs size tradeoffs. that's why save for web is so nice, you can have four different versions on a once....


___________________
b u n c h a p i x e l s

Wana know *my* final step in every image?

1- copy-merged
2- open psp
3- use psp's better mathematics and user friendly menu's to get things better and faster

i will personally hunt and shoot anyone that says it's easier or faster via ps

natazha: If it is too lurry then I suspect you are over-optimising the image and getting it right will involve a lot of fiddling with the settings so you get the compromise between size and quality. The main thing though is what you are planning on using the image for on your homepage and how big (in kb) the image actually is. If you have a really big good quality piece of art you'd like to show people then put it on its own page and link through with a thumbnail and (if it is a big file) put the size in the images TITLE tag or next to the thumbnail. If, however, you've made a big graphic you'd like to use as an interface and it is a big file then you are possibly going about things the wrong way. Use the graphic as a guide to the way you want it to look when you make the page in HTML (and take advantage of tiling and repeating elements where you can).

If you give us an idea of what the image is for then we can give you better advice as how you are going to use the image is important (if it is a one off on its own page and you've warned people about it then we might be happy to wait for a big download but if it is your main interface then it will slow your page down too much and you will have annoyed visitors which is bad).

Emps


A good buttock will always find a bench for itself - Estonian proverb

Oh my goodness? I downloaded a tutorial on image slicing (via Photoshop). It worked like a charm! Grazie.

natazha