Paul,
It sounds like you’ve about answered your own question. I suspect you’re using heavily compressed jpg images which would typically be much larger if they were not compressed. Once the image is in memory, it will be "full sized" based upon its pixel dimensions ( 3 bytes for every RGB pixel ) . Saving them with "Save for Web" could easily result in a larger file on the hard drive if the compression ration was smaller than the original compression ratio.
A 75k file on the website downloads like any 75k file does. It only gets "decompressed" into a larger sized real image once it’s decompressed on the end user computer , by whatever viewer is in use.
Clear as mud ?
🙂
Brent
Wow! I’ve never had that problem, Paul, so I don’t know what’s happening.
I just know that you can choose what percentage-size you want your picture to be, if you’re using the IE Explorer preview. At that rate you’d probably have to bring them down to around a 10% size.
I just had a thought, though. Are you working on them As JPG’s, or do you save them first as PSD’s and save to the web from there? That’s generally what I do. You can resize the picture safely when in the PSD mode (no lossy) by choosing the Image/resize.
Good luck and I know someone more experienced than I am will give you some better advice.
Thanks Brent and Lorace. This is the procedure I’ve been following: I scan my slides using a Minolta Scan Dual III at the highest resolution Tiff file possible. This results in files around 32MB.
I then crop and save as jpegs in Elements – with compression between 5 and 8 on the 1-12 scale. I then resize them to 700pixels on the longest edge (so around 450 on the other edge) and this gives me files of between 60 and 80 kb which when I view them give acceptable quality.
What I really need to know is whether I can then post these on a website as they are. When I then tried to "save for web" I was surprised to see them shown as apparently much larger – around 900kb. And when I reduced the file size of these down to 70kb or so, the quality was much worse.
Another option is to do "save for web" straight from the huge tiff files, but I can’t resize the pics at that stage. And of course such huge files take ages to process. Perhaps I could resize the tiff files to 700 by 450 then do save for web as jpeg and set the compression there? Would files of around 70kb created in that way look better?
So, the basic question: at what point can I be confident that when my file manager tells me a jpeg is around 70kb in size, it really IS that size and won’t take ages to download if I posted it on a website?
Many thanks again if you can help
Paul
Paul,
The 70k file that you speak of is really 70k ( filesize ) and will download quickly. The reason that it appears 900k or so in Elements is that is the image size in pixels ( 700 x 450 x3 bytes ) when it is in memory and displayed on your screen.
So, the answer is "yes" you can post a 70k jpg on the web and be confident that it will download quickly. You simply have gotten confused over image size in pixels, and file size based on stored bytes of data. Confusion comes easy in this game, I know <G> .
🙂
Brent
Ah, maybe I’m misunderstanding something (it’s early here on the left coast), but I have resized in Save for Web. I often take one of my PSD files and resize it down to 600 X 400 at the same time I’m generating a JPEG file for e-mailing. Check the option boxes in the lower portion of the SFW screen; I think you’ll find a place where you can change the length and width.
I’m wondering , Beth, if he has Elements 1 . That’s the only way I can explain the details of his message <G>?
🙂
Ping! The bulb has just switched on above my head. Thanks for enlightenment Brent. I now fully understand what’s going on. I should have read your first message a little more carefully.
Yes, I have Elements 1 and not 2. It came with the Minolta scanner, and though the magazine ads that prompted me to buy it promised version 2, it came with 1.
I’ve never got round to querying that with Minolta, mainly because so far I’ve not encountered any differences between my version and the version described in the "How to with Elements 2" features in magazines.
But this seems to be a very useful feature – resizing at the save for web stage – and I may just go and force them to upgrade me. Are there any other features in 2 that a beginner like me would miss in 1? Also, is 700 by 450 the right size for putting photos on the web (I like to err or the large size so people can see at least some of the detail) or should I go a bit smaller?
Thanks for the help all – this has saved me a lot of frustration!
Web image size is much a question of your choice. I typically use 600 pixels as one dimension and whatever comes up, for the other dimension. As people gravitate to larger monitors ( and higher screen resolution) , I think we’ll all have to change our habits to compensate.
🙂
Brent
Paul,
If the 700 is the horizontal dimension then your viewers won’t have to scroll to see the image in its entirety. But, a 700 pixel height dimension will cause most people to scroll.
If the want to have the image take up most of the screen but not cause viewers to scroll, allowing for the fact that people have their monitors set for different resolutions, a safe size would be a maximum of 800 horizontal and a max of 550 pixels height.
The actual dimensions would depend on the aspect ratio of your image, using the above numbers as the restrictive force you might want to do this (working on a copy probably);
* go to Image>Resize>Image Size
* have "Resample" "Constrain" both checked * don’t change the resolution value as it doesn’t matter at all for screen viewing * for landscape orientation: change only the width to 800 pixels and let the height fill itself in * for portrait: change only the height to 550 pixels and let the width fill itself in * then go to "Save For Web" and choose your jpg quality. This sets the compression, the more compression the less the quality. You can balance quality with desired file size/loading time. At the bottom of this screen you will see the file size and approximate download time change as you change the quality level.
Nancy
