Because my flist is so knowledgable..

[ash48]

I know. I ask a lot of questions. I've learned over time that that's the best way for me to learn and a great way to get info relevant to LJ.

This time I have one for the picspammers.

I have actually opened up Photoshop and I AM PLAYING! \o/ I have figured out how to size and colour and I'm damn excited about that.

The question is. What is a good and reasonable size (kb/mb) for an image? I have no idea if I should be aiming for a say 300kb file or lower. Higher? Obviously the higher the better for quality, but what is consider too big? I suspect if a picspam is too big it would take the average person too long to dl the images. Yeah?

And umm... png or jpeg? Argh! New learning curve.

Also *HUGS* everyone for the show/tell info. SO awesome. I learned heaps. Mostly that writing seems hard!

Comments

[storyspinner70.livejournal.com]

Most of my .jpg files are in the neighborhood of 20-150kb for various sizes. Most are much less than 100kb. It just depends on how heavy the graphic is, I guess, and the resolution. Most of mine are 72.

My .png files, though, are easily twice that or even larger depending on the size and resolution of them. I usually default to .png (cause I'm lazy that way) because they tend to be crisper and more clear for me - especially if the image has text in it.

Don't forget to learn animated .gifs, too. :D Those are fun!

[rhymephile.livejournal.com]

The png file has less compression, which will give you a higher quality file. You can use Photoshop to resize files when you "Save for Web" in the Photoshop menu. There you can optimize your file to compress it further when necessary.

Everything you make should have a resolution of 72, because that's standard for the internet.

[transfixeddream.livejournal.com]

My general rule of thumb for jpg vs png is whether or not it's a picture. If it is, jpg is the way to go, as photoshop can optimize the quality of the image while still keeping it a jpg. For anything else, png is definitely the way! Things with fonts and such - you definitely want something that'll keep the lines crisp and unfuzzy. Plus, png has the awesome ability to allow you to make parts of an image transparent or translucent, which is very very useful if you're posting things on a non-white background.

I say for a picspam, definitely try to aim under 300kb. It shouldn't be too hard if you use jpg - the files that eat up the kbs are pngs and gifs. I'd also maybe consider how many images you'll have in your picspam, as some browsers will run slowly if there's far too much loaded on one page.

Have fun playing with photoshop. :D

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Ah,ok. Thank you. Um... I'm trying to figure out how to make the resolution "72". At the moment I am using "save as". Do I need to "save for web & devices"? Sorry for dumb question.

Ack! I've tried .gifs. I'm yet to work out how to make it easy. It seems like such a lot of mucking around. Though I suspect that's just because I don't know how to do them properly. One I work out how to actually make my pics looks half decent I'll try playing around with .gifs again.

Thanks!

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Ah! I just asked that question above before looking at this./o\ So... save for web eh? So do I type in 72 where is says "quality" and tick optimise? See??! I know nothing!

Thanks!

[maichan.livejournal.com]

LOL, welcome to my world! I think everyone else here has covered the basics, but feel free to ping me if you ever want an advanced tutorial since "playing with Photoshop" is basically what I do for a living ;)

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Cool. That's great... I am imagining my picspam will have a lot of pics, that's why I am concerned about the size. But I don't want to lose the quality.

If I can get the jpgs to look good than that sounds like the way to go. I don't need to do anything fancy with them. Just lighten and play with the colour a bit. SPN footage is usually so dark.

Thanks so much! <33

[ash48.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Usually I'd get my expert hubby to help, but..um.. yeah, he's over my SPN stuff. (plus he's not here).

It's very likely I will take you up on that offer if I get stuck. :) I don't need to do anything fancy, just lighten and bring up the contrast and colour etc on the caps. I've been doing it in FCE, which I know isn't ideal.

I'm going to play around with the best way to save them. The "72" is confusing me a bit but I'll see what I can do.

Thanks bb! <3

[storyspinner70.livejournal.com]

Hiya. You can set that when you go to image size from the Image menu. You'll see the pixels, then below it the resolution. That's also where you, um, size it. :D

Oh, that's also where you can set the document size, which may be different from the actual picture size. That would be like if you wanted a border around the pic or to add something else besides just one image.

Also, if you aren't sure about the sizing by using pixels, you can click on the dropdown beside the actual measurements and change that to percent. Then you can choose to size it by a certain percentage in reference to the original size.

Sorry if you know that already. I'm not sure just what you know and don't. :D

[rhymephile.livejournal.com]

First, since you've never played with PS before, I would go check out icon_tutorial. There in the tags you will find tutorials for all the basics. I realize you're making stuff for Tumblr and not icons, but the preparation is mostly the same. It will teach you how to get the best-looking images possible. It will teach you how to crop and use layers and resize things. Using tutorials is how I learned.

In the PS menu go to Image > Image Size. There it will tell you everything about your image. Here is where you can resize it, and change the resolution.

When you're ready to save, go to File > Save for Web (or Save for Web and Devices depending on your version of PS). Here you will see a window, and at the top you will see tabs that read Original, Optimized, 2-Up, and 4-Up. This is PS giving you all the possible ways to make your image smaller. Click on 2-Up, and it will present you with your original, and a compressed file of what you created, so you can see it side by side to make sure the image is still a good quality.

Click on 4-Up, and it will present you with three different compressed versions, along with the original so you can compare.

Ideally, you want to save in png because it is the highest quality (after you open the Save for Web window, on the far right of the window you can choose what file type you want to save as in a drop-down menu). If you absolutely need to reduce the size of the file, you can use jpg.

[maichan.livejournal.com]

Photoshop will "Save for Web" at 72 dpi automatically. The only time you need to worry about it is if you are planning to print out a photo, in which case you should use 300 dpi.

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Wow thanks.

It won't be for Tumblr though, just for LJ - some picspams I am preparing. :)

That's very helpful. I saw the 2-Up etc and had no idea what that meant. Ok. So, PNG then.

Thank you SO much. It's beginning to make some sense. <33

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Ah... cool. That's even easier. :)

Cheers
xx

[mithborien.livejournal.com]

I think your questions have all ready been answered? But if you have any other questions about Photoshop, I am happy to answer them as well. Photoshop is one of my RL tools of the trade as well :)

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Thanks hun. The thing I'm learning is it takes time to understand it and get it right. I'm playing with the colouring but...wow.. there's so many options. I really just wanting to make caps looks nice...

*plays some more*

xx

[mithborien.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, Photoshop definitely takes time. There are still things I am learning about it and I have been using it for years.

I would definitely just go through all the adjustment and blending options, seeing what they do.

Ooh, here's a tip. If you get a colouring you really like, write down the steps you took to make it look that way, otherwise you will forget and not even looking at the PSD will help because you compressed a couple of layers *speaks from experience*