File size issues

[N8DAWG_007]

I'm almost ready to start breaking things.

I have a psd file that while I'm working on it, the file size is around 20k. The problem is that when I go to save it as a jpeg (which should create an even smaller file, right?) the file size more than doubles. I wouldn't care expcept that the file has to stay under 25k

Just trying different things, I've even gotten the workable file down to 8k and when I save it as a jpeg, it still ends up being over 50k.

Does anybody know what's going on, or how to keep the file size down?

[Medley]

The easiest way to get small file sizes in photoshop is to use File> Save for Web. Using this command, Photoshop strips the file of anything not neccessary, and gives you some "quality vs. file size" control. Here's an older avatar of mine as an example:



This is the original gif, and comes in at 36k.





This is saved for web using 256 colors and 0% lossyness- pretty much a straightforward save. It comes in at 8.7k





This last one was saved using 128 colors and a lossyness of 25%. You can see a little deterioration, but the file comes in at an incredible 4.5k. That's just 12% of the original file size!

Hope this helps.

- Joe U.

[kyockxzsnt]

or you can save it as bitmap

[kilz2latex]

bitmap is bigger

when you choose file>save as> jpg change the " image quality" slider a lower setting will obviously make it a smaller size

[N8DAWG_007]

I'll try the save for web.

As far as anything else, I can't save it as a bitmap because I specificly need a jpeg, and I've tried saving the jpeg on the lowest settings and for some unknown reason the file size stays the same. I've even saved as a jpeg on the lowest setting, opened the jpeg, and saved as jpeg again with the lowest settings using a different file name and the file size still doesn't change.

It doesn't make sense to me

[N8DAWG_007]

Save for web worked perfect. Thanks!!!

[Disjuku]

Sounds to me like you really just need to alter the jpg compression settings...

When you go to save a jpg, photoshop will give you the option to set the compression factor to a value between 1 and 12. at 12 it will loose no information, at 1 it will be very noticable. Depending on the image, a value of 10 or 11 can already start to make a huge difference, and depending on where it is to be used, you may be able to use a value down to 6 or 7. Photoshop also calculates the file size as you do this.

[N8DAWG_007]

Save for web worked fine, but to address the other suggestions...

I understand how to change compression when saving a jpeg. The problem I was having was that whether I saved the file at max. file size (12) or at the lowest file size (0) the actual size of the file would only change by 2-3 kb and it was still double the size of the image while working within PS.

It's as though PS was automatically including some type of data which was uneeded and unwanted.

While the save for web option delivered what I wanted does anyone know why the file would not compress regardless of the compression setting?

[Disjuku]

ah! my guess is it is a CMYK image?

Photoshop 6 will save a single black CMYK pixel as a 546.29kb file! It obviously has to save some extra data for a CMYK jpg. Try converting it to RGB first.