photo editors

..needing to reduce kb's for the web.

[rufus]

Thanks to WebmasterWorld I have sorted out caches, created great streaming audio, turn mp3's into .wma, got the encoder and getting there!

But now I need a good system, simple to work, that will reduce a photograph from, let's say 360kb, down to 30kb or 40kb and still have excellent quality suitable for the websites I have.

rufus

[jimbo_mac]

adobe imageready which is included in photoshop.

another good one is jasc paint pro

[photon]

IrfanView--freeware (well, postcardware to be technical), very powerful, very easy to use. Reducing pictue size is a snap.

[idiotgirl]

Ulead Smart Saver is another great one to crop and resize. It also allows you to compare the output quality at various compression ratios and reduced palettes before saving and does batch processing, as well.

[TheWebographer]

I like PaintShop Pro. Its under $100, I think. And the updates to new versions are very cheap. It does ALOT.

PhotoShop is good to, but pricey.

In some ways PaintShop Pro is better than PhotoShop. In others, PhotoShop is best. I use both.

[Serio]

Try Macromedia Fireworks - it's the best - also there is a free trial

[Benjammin]

I like Fireworks.

I also use Photoshop Elements it is very easy to use and a lot cheaper than the full version fo Photoshop.

[madcat]

Try Macromedia Fireworks - it's the best - also there is a free trial

Yes, if you can't afford Photoshop > actually, even if you can and you just need to edit photos for the Web, try Fireworks. Lightweight hardcore editing facility- it won't eat up your computers resources like PS either.

[Skylo]

>> Yes, if you can't afford Photoshop > actually, even if you can and you just need to edit photos for the Web, try Fireworks. Lightweight hardcore editing facility- it won't eat up your computers resources like PS either.

Hit the nail on the head!

[gph]

I think it depends on what you want for a finish product and how much you want to learn.

If you just want functional images that look half decent then any program will do. You might as well use something basic to avoid the image resizing learning curve.

PS is #1 at image resizing while maintaining quality and has automation features like actions and scripting. If you know JS or VBScript you'll find scripting to be very useful. PS is very complicated, you could spend a lifetime learning about what it can do.

PSP is much cheaper, a good learning tool and friendly from the get go.

I haven't used Fireworks

[gph]

PS is very complicated, you could spend a lifetime learning about what it can do.

Just to clarify, PS and PSP are about the same in ease of use when it comes to resizing. PS might be a little easier because of ImageReady.

[u4eas]

i use both Fireworks and PS I prefer fireworks for most stuff, PS when it comes to hardcore grafx.

u4ea

[Romeo]

If you want to resize JPEG pictures you have 2 options:
(1) mouseclicking in Photoshop et al.
(2) run a small free perl script in batch on the command line using some basic GD-lib functions like $newimage -> copyResized($image,...);
Please tell me, if you want the script.

Regards,
R.

[4serendipity]

For optimizing pics I always find myself turning to Ulead SmartSaver. I've found that I can always shave a couple extra K using it as opposed to other apps.

[Sarah Atkinson]

I heard that some way you can applay a gasian blur to like every xth pixel in photoshop(I'm not sure if they ment justthe reg gausian blur tool or a special one)and that it will some how greatly decress file size but not quality.

Anyone know anythign aboult this?

[robertito62]

once the jpg has been opened in photoshop, do:

1) save for the web
2) settings: medium at 30%
3) blur at 0.2
4) hit ok

This way you can cover some of the degradation that occurs by compressing this much.

You can get a 100+ kb pic to less than 30k and keep a fairly good quality pic. Settings may vary. You will have to experiment.