Resizing a banner creative

12k is way too low and Im struggling!

[claimsweb]

Hello all

Ive searched for threads on resizing tips - its a common theme in this forum and there are many solutions to many similar problems but I still havent found the answer for my particular conundrum.

I am creating a simple banner - no flash or dynamics - that must be lower than 12k in size and have put together a selection of text, graphics and some special effects using Fireworks. I then use Paintshop to optimise the jpeg appearance and this obviously works to a degree.

However if I drop below 20k the quality drops markedly and the result is unacceptable.

Has anyone got any tips using FW or Paintshop to help me reduce the size below 12k - or close to it - without the dramatic loss of quality? I have tried playing with the colours and selective optimising of certain graphics but to no avail.

There isnt much on here regarding FW and to be honest Im not that clever on it (surprise surprise!) but I have tried the optimise panel and jpeg solutions but without success.

Any help gratefully received!

Thanks
C

[gingerbreadman]

I'll need to have a look at the banner to see what can be done. Can you post it somewhere or sticky me?

[korkus2000]

What are the dimentions of the graphic?

[claimsweb]

The dimensions are 120 x 600 px - its a skyscraper for a large UK referrer

(Gingerbreadman - I'll sticky you with the details)

[korkus2000]

What is your dpi?

[claimsweb]

Now youre getting technical!

dpi is 300 - I think but I havent got a clue how to alter this. Presume the higher this is the larger the file? Could this be where I start?

[korkus2000]

Yes drop it to 72. 300 is print quality. Not sure how to do it in fireworks.

[claimsweb]

Thanks - I'll revert to the help files in FW & Paintshop and give it a go.

[DLadybug]

I had fits with the same issue. My main logo is still pretty fat, but I'm down to 18 for a file 390x160 and I just haven't bothered to really work at reducing it more.

One thing you might have learned already is to work with the file in paintshop pro as a gif or PNP file.

Don't save it to jpg format til that last save, because every time you re-save it, it strips out detail to compress it.

You can sticky me for help with psp, maybe we can do something with your file. I'm sure you've looked at the tutorials at the psp pro site as well? Other resources for learning to work with your graphics are on aol in the graphics forum.

~Dian

[matkat]

If you have the original photo, you'll get a higher quality image if you rescan it at 72 dpi rather than having photoshop, etc. do it from the 300 dpi scan that you have.

[claimsweb]

Thanks for your help guys n gals
I'll plug away

C

[gingerbreadman]

Martin

I've sent you what I would have done.

Would have been better if I had the time.

cheers
Ross

[mivox]

Once you give it another go at 72dpi, if you're still not hitting your target size, here are a few suggestions:

I always start off planning banners as GIF files. Cuts down on fine details and special effects (both of which increase file size).

Most gfx software gives you the option of selectively removing single colors in the GIF output dialog. If you're using drop shadows or gradients in the design, you can often shrink the file size by removing a few "too close to call" near-duplicate colors from the palette.

If it's STILL not working out, start axing the special effects... they might look shiny and nice, but if you're looking at a 17K file that needs to be 12, that extra bevel might make all the difference.

[claimsweb]

Ive just received gingerbreadmans version of my troublesome banner and guess what - its perfect! Far better than anything I could have put together. Thanks for your time breadman.

Ive resolved todays problem but still need to put into practice what Ive learned - one thing I forgot to mention was that some photo images were embedded into the banner and this obviously didnt help.

Thanks to all for your advice.

WW once again does the business.

[mivox]

gingerbreadman, to keep the discussion useful for everyone on the boards, would you care to share some of the techniques you used for minimizing the file size for the banner?

:)

[gingerbreadman]

Only after looking at the banner could I ascertain how best to go about optimizing the banner to around the 12k mark.

Claimsweb sent me the banner,as a jpg, to have a look at and I noticed the lossy compression had caused to much degradation quality.

For those that don't know...

GIF employs a different type of compression than JPG. GIF's compression is called "lossless" literally meaning "doesn't lose quality" when compressed. JPG employs "lossy" compression which literally means the image "loses" quality during the compression process. Even though the file size is slightly smaller in one of the JPG versions than the GIF, the image's quality is sadly lacking.

The banner consisted of black text on a white background and pictures.

A lossy method of compression would work best for the images (with lots of colours) but GIF compression would work better with the text.

I rebuilt the banner, taking the logo directly from the website, removed the images and optimized the banner as a GIF. The file size got down to the right size with very little noticeable deterioration in quality.

I perhaps cheated by removing the pictures but I focused more on the branding of the banner and repeated the use of colours so that I could optimise the graphic using less than 25 colours as opposed to the full 256.

Sticky me if you want to see the result.

Hope this helps.

[mivox]

Thanks for the information. :) That's pretty much what I was thinking... Photos on the web are such a PITA.

I've seen some really nice background photo banners that used monotone photos in gif images, but it depends enitrely on how much the photo can be simplified.