Hi all
I love color..which is a problem sometimes! LOL My pages are have nice pics and different layouts and are running 50-60kb each. My site is such that a first time visitor usually runs through the whole thing and I'm only getting 3500-4000 people per gig.

So I'd like to reduce the size both to save BW and also help dial up visitors.

I have photoshop, but I heard somewhere there is nice program to reduce file sizes a lot without too much quality loss. I have both jpegs and gifs. The large pics are scene scapes (mountains, rivers, etc) and I also have small music themed pics like violins and cellos.

Any help is appreciated
Thanks!

Here are some of the programs that I know
Adobe Image Ready (not photoshop)
Ulead PhotoImpact
and try this link http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=image+optimizer&tg=dl-2001

Hope that helps!

Regards,
Kisore

css is very helpful, i just helped someone with css, and how his(or her) site layout loads much much faster. (pm me if you want css help)

Also, save your images as .png or .bmp would help a little in terms of file size.

What about posting the link to your site, that way we can have a visiual of what needs can be reduced

Originally posted by 1jetsam
css is very helpful, i just helped someone with css, and how his(or her) site layout loads much much faster. (pm me if you want css help)

Also, save your images as .png or .bmp would help a little in terms of file size.

.bmp will reduce the file size?:stickout:

Originally posted by BannersMall
.bmp will reduce the file size?:stickout:

of course! as long as you reduce size of the image..make it black and white...and then use paint bucket to get rid of the black!

JPEG tends to be a better format for pictures...its not lossless, but it doesn't compress by reducing colors...

As for a better program- I don't use it much myself, but I recall hearing that Adobe Fireworks does a better job compressing images.

Originally posted by pdp
JPEG tends to be a better format for pictures...its not lossless, but it doesn't compress by reducing colors...

As for a better program- I don't use it much myself, but I recall hearing that Adobe Fireworks does a better job compressing images.

you mean macromedia fireworks? i've heard the same thing. i know a couple people who use photoshop to create their images, then then they open them in fireworks just to compress them.

Originally posted by BannersMall
.bmp will reduce the file size?:stickout:

Same reaction: :D :stickout:

you mean macromedia fireworks?

Yes. Thank you for correcting me.

Now I think I'll go put the claims to a test...

Originally posted by pdp
Yes. Thank you for correcting me.

Now I think I'll go put the claims to a test...

lol, didn't correct you out of spite, rather out of clarification for dreamaloud1.

after you test these claims, be sure to post your results :-D

.gif is a good way to make .jpg files smaller

:confused: I was merely thanking you, meh.

I created two images using as similair a technique as possible in each program - variety of colors, gradients, and vector shapes. 800x800 pixels


JPEG
(Both were saved at as similair a file size as possible for JPEG tests)

Made in FW:

FW: 81% compression
41.4 kb
Image (members.lycos.co.uk/bfirc/fwps/fw-fwsave.jpg)

PS: 50% compression
41.7 kb
Image (members.lycos.co.uk/bfirc/fwps/fw-pssave.jpg)


Made in PS:

FW: 58% compression
42.7 kb
Image (members.lycos.co.uk/bfirc/fwps/ps-fwsave.gif)

PS: 50% compression
43.6 kb
Image (members.lycos.co.uk/bfirc/fwps/ps-pssave.gif)


GIF
(All with 256 colors, 100% dithering, no lossy)

Made in FW:

FW: 124 kb
Image (members.lycos.co.uk/bfirc/fwps/fw-fwsave.gif)

PS: 117 kb
Image (members.lycos.co.uk/bfirc/fwps/fw-pssave.gif)


Made in PS:

FW: 82.9 kb
Image (members.lycos.co.uk/bfirc/fwps/ps-fwsave.gif)

PS: 78.3 kb
Image (members.lycos.co.uk/bfirc/fwps/ps-pssave.gif)

Judge them as you will - I'm not up to putting more effort into it right now. (though I will say I'm leaning towards PS...)

Originally posted by 6thDay
of course! as long as you reduce size of the image..make it black and white...and then use paint bucket to get rid of the black!

Never heard about this :D ..Can you explain a bit more..

well it's quite simple. if you take an excesive large file, make the image size (canvas) about, oh, i don't know, half, it will reduce the size of the file by half. then you take it and make it 2 color, instead of 26 billion or w/e. this will reduce it again, probably by about 2/3. then you take the paint bucket, select white, and fill in all of the parts that are black. this will reduce it again by about 3/4. save it as a bitmap and your all set!

here's mine:

origional: http://www.snowballs-chance.com/snowball/pictures/random/bg1.gif

bitmap: http://www.snowballs-chance.com/snowball/pictures/random/img.bmp

the origional is 321 kb.

the bitmap is 3.11 kb! and look! no loss of quality! (loss of everything else, but supreme quality)

hmm.. i cant see the bitmap

i can't see it either..

If I'm not mistaken, that's the point...


of course! as long as you reduce size of the image..make it black and white...and then use paint bucket to get rid of the black!


I'm not sure whether to intepret this as a joke, or someone's odd way of saying people are making sites too graphic intensive. I'm guessing the former.

both actually

LOL You guys are tripping me out. The bitmap thing was hilarious BTW. I have to admit I was suprised at the test results which show Photoshop outperforming Fireworks. Because of the test I used PS to compress the files. What I did was take take each photo and recompress it to a variety of sizes and then uploaded all the pics to the web. Finally, I picked the lowest sized one that still looked good and have gotten the pages down to about 40-45KB each. I would show them to you, but The Planet seems to be down at the moment. :(

Actually, it seems that it's only my server. Lucky me. LOL

Just for anyone who reads this thread for information- Someone sent me a link to GIFBot.
www.netmechanic.com/GIFBot/optimize-graphic.htm

That program does the same thing I did but much much much faster.
Check it out if you want