Reduce the size of image files

[indi]

Hello,

I need to know what kind of software that can be used to reduce the size of image files (not resize the width and height) without loosing the quality too much. e.g. I want to reduce a 50kb image to 20kb or smaller. Thanks for your help.

[MuNKyonline]

Fireworks can do this for you (and it does it better than photoshop). Download a trial version from www.macromedia.com =)

[scenesone]

Can you provide an argument for that statement? I have heard it's true, but with nothing to back it up and I have been a Photoshop user for years. It's fairly straightforward to reduce the file size with the Save for Web options dialog window, and works quickly and well enough for me.

My 2 cents, thanks...
Billy

Originally Posted by MuNKy

Fireworks can do this for you (and it does it better than photoshop). Download a trial version from www.macromedia.com =)

[MarcGrobman]

And another thing -- if you are reducing JPEGs try and go back to the original, uncompressed source and then reduce them for the best quality. Each time you reduce a JPEG the quality gets worse.

And, yea, I didn't know that Firewords did better. Does it really? Does it really make much of a difference? How is the quality? I guess photoshop may have take over the technology now that they've bought Macromedia.

[Faglork]

Fireworks just for size reduction? Seems a bit of overkill ...

If you are looking for a stand-alone size-reducing program, try Web Image Guru from VIMAS
http://www.vimas.com/ve_guru.htm

or CyberView Image
http://www.cyberviewcd.com/cvimage/


hth,
faglork

[MuNKyonline]

scenesone, I think that Fireworks compresses the images better. I think it's to do with the quality and file sizes. Probably doesnt make that much difference really.

I just have him a solution that's all. He may find other uses for Fireworks also.

[Eagle Imagery]

Corel's image compression algorythms are far better than Photoshop's too. Have been for a long time.

[MarcGrobman]

All very interesting and surprising. I had just assumed Adobe had it cornered. I noticed it long ago with animated gifs, back when I used them more. But it is so easy to just stay in photoshop/image ready. May be worth looking into when size is extremely important, like banner ads....

Thanks for the info,

Marc

[CLBridges]

I use a photoshop plugin called Webvise Totality by AutoFX.

It has a digital watermarking system, a jpeg compression engine, a gif compression engine and an optimized dithering engine. You can adjust color press, tonal range, shield range and image dimensions but I mostly just use the global slider. The program (by default) will almost always 'over compress' it by my standards, so I just adjust the slider down until the compression is barely noticable and VOILA! If I had to use Photoshops jpeg compression, I'd be lost!

I've found that if I use KPT Equalizer to sharpen my images up just a tad, and then run it through Webvise's jpeg compression engine, I can adjust my images to where you can hardly tell (unless you compare it to the original of course!)

I've never tried the one in Fireworks. I'll have to give it a try though. I maintain a few art sites and file size without loss of quality is very important.

Carrie**

Originally Posted by scenesone

Can you provide an argument for that statement? I have heard it's true, but with nothing to back it up and I have been a Photoshop user for years. It's fairly straightforward to reduce the file size with the Save for Web options dialog window, and works quickly and well enough for me.

My 2 cents, thanks...
Billy

I haven't tried that in Fireworks, I personally prefer Photoshop and have been using it for about three and 1/2 years. I agree, the Save for Web option is really easy to use in Photoshop, and comes in quite handy.

[Easywebdev]

I used to use a small app back in my windows days that was excellent. If I could get it to run under wine I'd still use it.
Ulead smart saver pro. Integrates well with photoshop or paintshop pro and has better compression than the above mentioned apps. Also has a very good slicer.

http://www.ulead.com/ssp/runme.htm

[Chris]

fireworks or nothing when it comes to web graphics. i personally like the fact i can cut through the bloat of photoshop w/macromedia. unfortunately, there won't be any/many more renditions of FW, thanks to adobe buying up the competition. oh well, if you can't beat them, buy them. it works for MS...

/end threadjack

as for reducing image size, any imaging software (save MS Paint) can accomplish this goal.