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I am really struggling with the image size vs resolution issue.

There was a time when I could reduce an image and get fairly good definition to my pictures. When I used Front Page I would reduce the size of the picture, then click on resample and the reduced pictures fuzziness would magically clear up and I would have a decent picture, about 1/3 screen size with a file size of about 16K.

Now, using photo shop or HP picture editor I reduce a file to what they call web page size, and I get a fuzzy shot with a file size of about 90 K. Takes 5 times longer to load and the quality is louzy.

Lance, I tried to run that image editor you sent me and it won't go. The instructions say to right click a picture in microsoft explorer page and follow instructions. Nothing happens when I right click a picture.

My poor web page has become so obsolete that I hate to go there myself.

Does anyone know how to reduce picture size,and keep the sharpness to acceptable limits using either photoshop or the image resizer?

I would be eternally grateful for some insight here

John

   Hi John!
     You can use different software for this, there are a some programs that are out there on the web that'll do it for you. here are some links, try them all and you'll find the one you like best.
Jpeg Wizard
Jpeg Cruncher
My Imager

And there are two programs that you can download and install on your computer, too....

Easy thumbnails
And also Irfan View

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

John -
If MS image re sizer tool is installed, and you right click on the image from within explor, at the top of the drop down menu you'll see this



Click resize picture and you'll see this


say OK, and it will dump the resized image into the same folder. Another way to resize and its quick and easy is to use MS Paint. open your image and click

IMAGE, then Stretch Skew -
reduce your image in both the horizontal and vertical by 50% and so on.

John, feel free to shoot me a call at home if you want me to walk ya through any of this.

These are the two easist ways ive come across.

LanceLanceK38594.4306365741

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Hi John
I use Paint Shop Pro but there should be a way to select different algorythms for your picture resize. I'm not familiar with photo shop though. Try a google search for a user group to see if there are any tutorials or help. There are a couple of informative sites that are geared to Paint shop so there probably are for photo shop too. Sorry if I haven't been real helpful, but I do like seeing new stuff on your web site.John How38594.4309027778

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Mark, Lance, John
Thank you so much.
   What is the average acceptable image size (in bytes) for the typical web page? Do you find that these programs will reduce the image without just destroying the resolution?

John everyone is right here, there are is a ton of software available out there to do the job

Food for thought while reducing: If you have an image 600 pixels x 800 pixels set at 300 dots per inch resolution and you reduce it to 300 pixels x 400 pixels at 300 dots per inch it will fuss out because the amount of dots available to make up the details of the image is reduced by half. Therefore you need to convert the image to a larger dot per inch resolution to maintain equal clearity.

Most software has a feature called sharpen that does this by log rhythm, but I get the best result by manually increasing the "dot per inch resolution" of the original before I reduce it. Be aware that the DPI will affect the file size in MB so don’t go overboard.

DPI doesn't matter at all unless you're trying to print. It's all about number of pixels. If you adjust the DPI, you're basically just adjusting the number of pixels in a roundabout way.

In Photoshop, when you save as a jpeg you get the option of compression quality which can affect filesize a lot. I think this mostly has to do with adjusting the color pallete, reducing the total number of colors used in the image. My standard prodedure when converting pics for my blog is to crop out all the unnecessary stuff, adjust the image size (number of pixels), and then save it at a compression quality of 6 or 7.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

In photoshop, under the "Image" menu choose "Image size...". This brings up a dialog box that allows you to set the Pixel Dimensions (# of pixels - affects the size on screen) or document size (affects the print size). Adjust only the Pixel Dimensions. Type in, say, 400 for the width, and the height will be automatically adjusted to keep everything proportional. Ignore the "Document Size" settings. Make sure the "Resample Image" checkbox is checked, and that "bicubic" is selected as the resampling algorithm. That will ensure that the image still looks good when made smaller. If you have photoshop CS or later, than you can choose "Bicubic Sharper" if downsizing, and "Bicubic Smoother" if upsizing.

Here's a good page that goes through this in much more detail, if you need it: http://www.ltlimagery.com/how-to/sizingimages.htm

rlabbe38594.5156828704

John

I've found I have more sucess using Jpeg Format on my web page than the Gif created, if you use the save for Web function in Photoshop.

What I do is take the images down in size from the menu Image and then Resize and reduce the number of pixels as mentioned above.

Then I go File Save as and use the little slide bar to reduce the image quality from 12 to around nine, I aim to get the images below 500K for the web page.

Brock published a method on here a little while back which gave a routine to go through.

Russell

John,

Note: you want to keep the ORIGINAL image file in all its glory (as many pixels as possible.) You will be creating a COPY of your original, and the copy will be smaller.
=================================

96 dpi is about the maximum number of pixels per inch that will display on a monitor. Any more than that is a waste of file space, unless you are printing the image. (High quality printing is 240dpi to 300dpi.)

Next, make sure the DPI setting is at 96dpi, if your program allows you to control that image file attribute.

Next, use some sort of a resize function, in some image program, to arrive at a final size in pixels Wide x pixels High. Unless you are cropping the image, you should just change one of the pixel dimensions, and let the other dimension calculate itself (to retain the original "aspect ratio" so that the image isn't squashed or stretched in one direction.) For example, let's say you started with a Canon Powershot S410 camera, and you photograph at the higest resolution, 2272 x 1704 pixels. And, lets say you wanted to reduce that picture so that it is no larger than 700x500 pixels, for web display. If you change the WIDTH to 700, and allow the program to calculate the height, you will get 525 for the height (a bit larger than what you want.) So, go back and change the HEIGHT instead, to 500, and the program will calculate the width to be 667 pixels. So, now you know that the 667x500 picture will fit within the 700x500 pixel space that was your maximum.

Then, use "Save As" to create this smaller copy of the original file for web use. This will also preserve the original file.

Hope this helps. If not clear, then I would say the steps need to be outlined for the specific image program that you will use. (I'm not sure if your version of Photoshop will be identical to the steps in Photoshop CS.)

In Photoshop CS it is:
Image
Image Size
Change the resolution to 96 pixels per inch
Put a check in the checkbox: Scale Styles
Put a check in the checkbox: Constrain Proportions
Put a check in the checkbox: Resample Images [Bicubic]
Change ONE of the Width or Height settings, in pixels
Click OK


Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Thanks guys
   I really appreciate your input. This is a great support group for floundering computer illiterates such as myself. I have been rescued.