Image file size reduction question.

GavinBKK · 10-24-2006, 06:42 AM

If I take a pic that is a 1.5Mb file, how can I reduce the file size to make it a bit more email-friendly?

Many thanks,

Gavin

olealf · 10-24-2006, 06:55 AM

Open it with GraphicConverter or something similar and reduce its resolution and/or its size.

ThreeBKK · 10-24-2006, 07:19 AM

Change it to another format that has built-in compression like jpeg. You can often set how much compression you want. Adobe Image Ready is really good at doing this. I've never tried GraphicConverter. I'm pretty sure Preview can convert image formats as well.

capitalj · 10-24-2006, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThreeBKK


	Change it to another format that has built-in compression like jpeg. You can often set how much compression you want. Adobe Image Ready is really good at doing this. I've never tried GraphicConverter. I'm pretty sure Preview can convert image formats as well.

Preview has limited options, but it just compressed a 1.3 MB jpeg to 44KB (when saving, move the "Quality" slider to "least".) The decrease in image quality was, predictably, almost as dramatic as the decrease in file size.

Changing the dimensions as well as the compression yields preferable results. I prefer GraphicConverter because it is so versatile.

There are applications like EasyBatchPhoto - http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20062 - and Downsize - http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22796 - that are very easy to use and might be worth the license fee ( $23.95 and $19.95 respectively) depending on user needs.

JDV · 10-24-2006, 11:13 AM

This is always a balancing act, depending very much on just what the nature of the image you are sending might be. jpeg compression actually does a pretty decent job of producing decent images, but it won't retain all of the information contained in a TIFF or RAW file. If it is primarily to be viewed on a computer screen, the chances are that it won't matter much at all. If it is to be printed out on a photo printer and framed, it might make a big difference. When we are sending photos of our products to customers, I use the "save for web" option in Photoshop after making needed adjustments. I don't use the lowest level of compression, but close to it, and for those purposes, it works extremely well, but if I were doing photos of fine-art objects where detail was very important, I'd certainly do it differently.

Joe VanZandt

Screengem0531 · 10-24-2006, 01:07 PM

The easiest way, I think, would be put the photo in iPhoto and click the email button at the bottom. It will ask you how much you want to compress it it and put it in an email message as an attachment.

NewPerfection · 10-24-2006, 03:54 PM

I have a MUCH easier way to do it than anyone here mentioned. There's a small contextual menu add-on that will change the compression as well as the size of a jpeg to whatever you want. I can take a 2 Mb jpeg file and compress it to 400 kb without much quality loss. Here's the link:
http://www.pixture.com/software/macosx.php
It can also do batch resizing and you can choose to replace the original file or create another one. It's called PhotoToolCM and is about 3/4 of the way down the page I linked.

JDV · 10-24-2006, 04:16 PM

Looks cool; the only problem I see is that it states compatibility with Jaguar and Panther, but makes no meniton of Tiger. Have you used the product with Tiger? Of course, being free, can't be too much harm in trying it to find out.

I simply repeat, how much degradation is too much degradation is just a matter of circumstance and judgment. There is no way that I know of to reduce file size without some compromise of quality, and after you decide that there are a ton of utilities available that can accomplish the task. The latest version of Stuffit, however, does claim to be able to accomplish significant (up to 30%) compression of .jpg images, which normally don't compress well.

Joe VanZandt

assuna · 10-24-2006, 05:45 PM

just drag the image to an open email message in mail or drop it on the mail icon. in the bottom right corner of your new email message window is a dropdown box where you can choose the size of the image. you can even drag it out of the window again and drop it on your desktop and you will have a smaller, resized image.

ThreeBKK · 10-24-2006, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by assuna


	just drag the image to an open email message in mail or drop it on the mail icon. in the bottom right corner of your new email message window is a dropdown box where you can choose the size of the image. you can even drag it out of the window again and drop it on your desktop and you will have a smaller, resized image.

Wow, I thought the iPhoto tip was good, but this one takes the cake. So many hidden operations in Mac OS X.

capitalj · 10-24-2006, 06:07 PM

I am embarrassed to admit that I never noticed that before. I just resized a 1042 x 782, 1.3 MB jpeg to 320 x 240, 316 KB. I'll remember this next time I send pictures of the kids to their grandparents.

Thanks for pointing that out.

vanakaru · 10-24-2006, 07:34 PM

The ONLY way I have got acceptable results is with Photoshop 'Save For Web". I make my image to fit on older monitor screen 480x... and jpg at 30 to 50% quality. You see the result before you hit save. My image files sizes are usually under 100 kb and still look very good.

Like this one
original 2.7mb
now 44kb

GavinBKK · 10-25-2006, 12:04 AM

Excellent discussion and tips Gentlemen; thankyou very much. I think that Mail.app tip is great - really something else, eh? I have learned a lot here.

I just received an x-ray of my head and it was 1.8Mb. The jpeg tip has reduced it to 124Kb. Fantastic and no discernible issue with clarity. Very crispy, in fact.

Thanks again.

Gavin

NewPerfection · 10-25-2006, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDV


	Looks cool; the only problem I see is that it states compatibility with Jaguar and Panther, but makes no meniton of Tiger. Have you used the product with Tiger? Of course, being free, can't be too much harm in trying it to find out.

I've used it with system versions from 10.2 to 10.3 to 10.4.8. The plugin has worked flawlessly through every system update. Assuna's tip is good though, that's something I never knew about.

acme.mail.order · 10-25-2006, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vanakaru


	The ONLY way I have got acceptable results is with Photoshop 'Save For Web".

The ONLY way is to use PhotoShop??? There are many, many implementations of the jpeg resize/resample algorithm. Adobe hardly has an exclusive. If it works for you, great. But dragging out Photoshop to do a basic resize is overkill when lighter, faster tools will do the job just as well.

vanakaru · 10-25-2006, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by acme.mail.order


	The ONLY way is to use PhotoShop??? There are many, many implementations of the jpeg resize/resample algorithm. Adobe hardly has an exclusive. If it works for you, great. But dragging out Photoshop to do a basic resize is overkill when lighter, faster tools will do the job just as well.

You may be right! I have not tested very many (4-5) conversion tools and since I have PS already I see no need to look for something else.
But I should have been bit more specific. Namely to get great image to show on web you need to optimaze it for web. Not only resize and save .jpg. It works to the point. And there is a big difference for me to wait for a picture to open (200-300kb) or get it instantly. And I am really tired to see too large and poor quality images when good is rather easy to achieve.
You can do it manualy if you know what to look for, but by then you probably using PS already.
You can do a lot of good to your pictures when you are with PS and you have all the tools handy and you are more likely to learn something.
BTW to save this image took me about 10 sec from finding a one to open.

acme.mail.order · 10-25-2006, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vanakaru


	Namely to get great image to show on web you need to optimaze it for web.

I agree completely. Size nees to match the web page size, Quality needs to be good enough but not so much it wastes bandwidth. Should it be jpeg, gif or png? (That's one decision a program probably will never be able to make)

Quote:


	You can do it manualy if you know what to look for

Certainly

Quote:


	but by then you probably using PS already.

Harrumph. Personally I find PS to be bloated, slow, over-complex and over-priced. Maybe you need it if you do magazine layouts every day.

NewPerfection · 10-26-2006, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by acme.mail.order


	Harrumph. Personally I find PS to be bloated, slow, over-complex and over-priced.

As do I. The tool I mentioned can do an image resize to the exact pixel-size and quality you want. And once you have the settings you want, you can do it in batches as well, even if the photos are different sizes to start out with. Takes about 3 seconds too.

JDV · 10-27-2006, 04:15 PM

Well, if image reduction or rotation or cropping or relatively simple editing is all that is needed, then you are quite right...PhotoShop is overkill. But the people in my company take photographs in very sub-optimal conditions, so I frequently do a -lot- of editing in PhotoShop before the image would be one that I reasonably -can- send, regardless of its size. If you're in that situation, the option of "save for web" in PhotoShop really does do a good job of producing small files of good quality. But I am not a professional photo-editor either...there are very many features in PhotoShop that I never touch. But one person's bloat is another's essential functionality in these specialized programs.

Joe VanZandt

MacWrite · 10-28-2006, 02:50 AM

Photoshop's 'Save for Web' doesn't seem to do as good a job as GraphicConverter with 'web-ready' on, when the goal is keeping quality at a small file size. The files from GC are consistently smaller and just as clean-looking.

For scaling an image, however, nothing beats Photoshop in my experience.

10-24-2006, 06:42 AM	#1
GavinBKK Hall of Famer Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Thailand Posts: 3,359	Image file size reduction question. If I take a pic that is a 1.5Mb file, how can I reduce the file size to make it a bit more email-friendly? Many thanks, Gavin __________________ LoadsaMacs.

10-24-2006, 07:19 AM	#3
ThreeBKK MVP Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Bangkok Posts: 1,626	Change it to another format that has built-in compression like jpeg. You can often set how much compression you want. Adobe Image Ready is really good at doing this. I've never tried GraphicConverter. I'm pretty sure Preview can convert image formats as well. __________________ ➤ Think it's a good idea to put your most intimate data on someone else's server? Macmini5,2 ❖ 2.7 GHz Core i7 ❖ Snow Leopard ❖ Mtn Lion

10-24-2006, 07:34 PM	#12
vanakaru All Star Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 634	The ONLY way I have got acceptable results is with Photoshop 'Save For Web". I make my image to fit on older monitor screen 480x... and jpg at 30 to 50% quality. You see the result before you hit save. My image files sizes are usually under 100 kb and still look very good. Like this one original 2.7mb now 44kb Attached Thumbnails Last edited by vanakaru; 10-24-2006 at 07:45 PM.

10-25-2006, 12:04 AM	#13
GavinBKK Hall of Famer Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Thailand Posts: 3,359	Excellent discussion and tips Gentlemen; thankyou very much. I think that Mail.app tip is great - really something else, eh? I have learned a lot here. I just received an x-ray of my head and it was 1.8Mb. The jpeg tip has reduced it to 124Kb. Fantastic and no discernible issue with clarity. Very crispy, in fact. Thanks again. Gavin __________________ LoadsaMacs.

10-28-2006, 02:50 AM	#20
MacWrite Triple-A Player Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 75	Photoshop's 'Save for Web' doesn't seem to do as good a job as GraphicConverter with 'web-ready' on, when the goal is keeping quality at a small file size. The files from GC are consistently smaller and just as clean-looking. For scaling an image, however, nothing beats Photoshop in my experience. __________________ Stop by macskill.com and stay a while.

10-24-2006, 06:55 AM	#2
olealf Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hamburg; Germany Posts: 241	Open it with GraphicConverter or something similar and reduce its resolution and/or its size.

10-24-2006, 11:13 AM	#5
JDV Hall of Famer Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Chicago, Illinois Posts: 3,191	This is always a balancing act, depending very much on just what the nature of the image you are sending might be. jpeg compression actually does a pretty decent job of producing decent images, but it won't retain all of the information contained in a TIFF or RAW file. If it is primarily to be viewed on a computer screen, the chances are that it won't matter much at all. If it is to be printed out on a photo printer and framed, it might make a big difference. When we are sending photos of our products to customers, I use the "save for web" option in Photoshop after making needed adjustments. I don't use the lowest level of compression, but close to it, and for those purposes, it works extremely well, but if I were doing photos of fine-art objects where detail was very important, I'd certainly do it differently. Joe VanZandt

10-24-2006, 01:07 PM	#6
Screengem0531 Major Leaguer Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 465	The easiest way, I think, would be put the photo in iPhoto and click the email button at the bottom. It will ask you how much you want to compress it it and put it in an email message as an attachment.

10-24-2006, 03:54 PM	#7
NewPerfection Prospect Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 44	I have a MUCH easier way to do it than anyone here mentioned. There's a small contextual menu add-on that will change the compression as well as the size of a jpeg to whatever you want. I can take a 2 Mb jpeg file and compress it to 400 kb without much quality loss. Here's the link: http://www.pixture.com/software/macosx.php It can also do batch resizing and you can choose to replace the original file or create another one. It's called PhotoToolCM and is about 3/4 of the way down the page I linked.

10-24-2006, 04:16 PM	#8
JDV Hall of Famer Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Chicago, Illinois Posts: 3,191	Looks cool; the only problem I see is that it states compatibility with Jaguar and Panther, but makes no meniton of Tiger. Have you used the product with Tiger? Of course, being free, can't be too much harm in trying it to find out. I simply repeat, how much degradation is too much degradation is just a matter of circumstance and judgment. There is no way that I know of to reduce file size without some compromise of quality, and after you decide that there are a ton of utilities available that can accomplish the task. The latest version of Stuffit, however, does claim to be able to accomplish significant (up to 30%) compression of .jpg images, which normally don't compress well. Joe VanZandt

10-24-2006, 05:45 PM	#9
assuna Triple-A Player Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 74	just drag the image to an open email message in mail or drop it on the mail icon. in the bottom right corner of your new email message window is a dropdown box where you can choose the size of the image. you can even drag it out of the window again and drop it on your desktop and you will have a smaller, resized image.

10-24-2006, 06:07 PM	#11
capitalj All Star Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Plymouth, Massachusetts Posts: 659	I am embarrassed to admit that I never noticed that before. I just resized a 1042 x 782, 1.3 MB jpeg to 320 x 240, 316 KB. I'll remember this next time I send pictures of the kids to their grandparents. Thanks for pointing that out.

10-27-2006, 04:15 PM	#19
JDV Hall of Famer Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Chicago, Illinois Posts: 3,191	Well, if image reduction or rotation or cropping or relatively simple editing is all that is needed, then you are quite right...PhotoShop is overkill. But the people in my company take photographs in very sub-optimal conditions, so I frequently do a -lot- of editing in PhotoShop before the image would be one that I reasonably -can- send, regardless of its size. If you're in that situation, the option of "save for web" in PhotoShop really does do a good job of producing small files of good quality. But I am not a professional photo-editor either...there are very many features in PhotoShop that I never touch. But one person's bloat is another's essential functionality in these specialized programs. Joe VanZandt