Image Size

[hookedtrout]

Ok, I've had an @$$ full of trying to reduce a photo. Can someone with an indepth knowledge of how to take a 2MB photo and reduce it to a 24kb photo please explain it to me in the simplest of terms. If it helps I have Adobe Photoshop 9.

Thanks

 

[Mosesatm]

Ok, I've had an @$$ full of trying to reduce a photo. Can someone with an indepth knowledge of how to take a 2MB photo and reduce it to a 24kb photo please explain it to me in the simplest of terms. If it helps I have Adobe Photoshop 9.

Thanks

Hook,
I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 so what I'm telling you is based on that program with the hope that it also applies to yours.

You probably need to reduce both the image size and the quality of the image.

There should be an "Image" tab at the top of your screen. Click on that and then click on something like "Resize", then pick "Image". If you have a 2mb file your image is probably around 3000 pixels or roughly 10 inches wide. Try reducing that number to around 1000 pixels or 3 inches.

When you save the file you should get a box that asks you for the image quality you want. Type in 3 or 4 and see what happens. It should then tell you how large the file is.

Keep playing with the image size and quality unti you get the file size where you need it.

I'm not an expert by any means so others may have a better way to go about this.

 

[hookedtrout]

Well I'd say Adobe Photoshop 9 is the same as that's exactly what I've been doing however once I get it down to about 50kb I can't seem to reduce it anymore, if I change the size by reducing the height and width it seems to compress the quality keeping, and in some cases even enlarging the pixel size?

It just amazes me that there isn't an option for kb size that you can simply say I want it 24 kb and click a button and shazam it's 24 kb. I've even saved the 50 kb sized photo and then reopend it trying to reduce it in the same fashion and it defaults to image quality 1 like it's already as low as it will go? Thanks for throwing in your experience, I'll go play some more and practice some slow breathing techniques to sustain my sanity. ;-)

 

[hookedtrout]

I set the image resolution at 30,000 which is the maximum, set the image quality at 1 or the lowest and it showed a picture size of .039 width and .043 height and it gave me a 78 kb picture. So I changed the resolution to 1 and the image quality at saving to 1 and it gave me a picture of 82.1 kb and dimensions of 1166 width x 1276 height. I can't see how to take it lower? I've taken all the adjustable options to the bare minimum and it doesn't seem to go low enough, at least through Adobe Photoshop.

It's not anything critical it just seems to be a standard for avatars in forums and so I tried to reduce a photo thinking as inteligent as Adobe is this should be nothing and the simple fact that I could not find a simple way to get there frustrated me. These computers are so beyond belief in what they can do it amazes me that there is a requirement for avatars that seems so simple yet I find it impossible?

 

[rvrtrash]

Cory, email it to me and I'll try to reduce it in Paint and send it back to you.

Steve

 

[hookedtrout]

Cory, email it to me and I'll try to reduce it in Paint and send it back to you.

Steve

NO!!!.... Just kidding, my frustration isn't in not having the photo reduced it's in the fact that there doesn't seem to be a simple way, or better put that a simple way isn't obvious...LIKE IT SHOULD BE! Seriously this kind of stuff doesn't really get to me so it's not like I'm over here in the frozen tundra locked in my house going nuts over this but I'm going to keep trying until I figure it out, if you guys figure it out let me know. Until then I'll keep playing, I'll give paint a try as well.

 

[admin]

I'm no Photoshop expert, but I think it saves certain core info with every file. Info like date, time, preview, etc. I think that's why you can only get the file size down so far. Other image programs don't do that.

As a test I took a 2MB photo and played with it. In Photoshop I could never get the file size down below 30kb. And that's with making the image only 50x38 pixels at 20 dpi. That's a completely worthless image and looks terrible. But the file size was still 30kb.

Then I opened the same image in Paint Shop Pro and sized it at 100x75 pixels. When saved that new file size was only 5kb.

Windows XP also has a nice little add on that lets you right click an image file and select "Resize Picture". Using that method I resized to the same 100x75 pixels and the file size was 6kb.

 

[hookedtrout]

I'm no Photoshop expert, but I think it saves certain core info with every file. Info like date, time, preview, etc. I think that's why you can only get the file size down so far. Other image programs don't do that.

As a test I took a 2MB photo and played with it. In Photoshop I could never get the file size down below 30kb. And that's with making the image only 50x38 pixels at 20 dpi. That's a completely worthless image and looks terrible. But the file size was still 30kb.

Then I opened the same image in Paint Shop Pro and sized it at 100x75 pixels. When saved that new file size was only 5kb.

Windows XP also has a nice little add on that lets you right click an image file and select "Resize Picture". Using that method I resized to the same 100x75 pixels and the file size was 6kb.

Well Jon, that just makes my day, I don't feel like a complete idiot now. The adventure became more of a mission to figure it out because I was sure there had to be a way in Photoshop, being the premier photo editing software for the general public I couldn't imagine it wouldn't do something so simple. I'll go play with it in paint or some of the other half a dozen photo editing programs I have.

Yes!!!

 

[nfrntau]

I use microsoft office picture manager. Right click on your photo icon, go to "open with" and choose that program. Then go to edit.
Works for me everytime.

 

[hookedtrout]

Thanks, I haven't had a chance to try any of these yet but I'm going to give it a try. I do feel much better just knowing how and why even though the next time I need to do it in a couple of years I will have forgotten and go through this all again. Old age ya know.