One thing I noticed about this forum and the places I work: people are just not sure about what goes on with JPEGS and how they differ from GIFS.

This post will tell you pretty much everything you wanted to know about JPEGS, and proper compression. The next one in this series will deal with (duh) GIFS

I found an article that takes a good approach (assumes you know nothing about being a graphic artist).
http://www.atpm.com/6.06/graphicsandtheinternet.shtml

[I would like to have some input on this] - tell me what you guys think, what you really think

And, of course, animations go in .GIF files, as well.

But I use Photoshop and, to tell you the truth, I use the "Save for Web" option (under "File") and usually compare the .gif against the .jpg. Sometimes an image which "should" be saved as one format may look the same or better and have a smaller file size in the other. What the heck.

Try this:

For every psd file you have:
Flatten it and save it as a tiff to a subfolder in your current working folder called "tiffs"

Then open the TIFF in Fireworks.
-run the export wizard
-pick the one that looks best for the amount of download weight it carries (it may need some tweaking

Export this image as the one you are going to publish.

I guarantee that you'll have better compression. Try it with images you have already worked with and look at them side by side.

Oh i forgot, the reason for creating the tiff folder is for easy clean up. Once you're done working, just delete the contents of the "tiffs" folder.

Hope it helps

[This message has been edited by xelA (edited 01-31-2001).]

[This message has been edited by xelA (edited 01-31-2001).]

I prefer to do it in Photoshop, as I've always gotten a better feel and result -- and you can't beat the Save for the Web function.

You should atleast try that method I mentioned b4. Tell me what you think.

That's right ... I do cutting up of images in ImageReady. I have many upgrades of Photoshop (including PS6) but, unfortunately, no Fireworks.

I do my photo-related work in Photoshop 5.5, and so I end up using the save-for-web option most of the time. Alex, I will try your convert-to-tiff idea and compare the results.

I have used Image-ready 2.0 for rollover work & slicing, but my experience is that it is way buggy when it comes to complex slices images with multiple rollovers. I did one where it took me about 20 tries at slicing the image different ways before I got something that didn't show up 'exploded' in the browser. I ultimately had to use more slices than necessary to get it to work... something about the way it was being exported musta been buggy. It was really frustrating. I hope they've worked it out for PS6.

Not to mention it built its own rollover images for parts of the image that it apparently thought had changed, but had not actually changed. I figure there were probably a couple of pixels that had changed, triggering it to do that. Is there any kind of tolerance you can set to ignore it if only say, 10 pixels change? And why doesn't it listen to YOUR instructions!? Good thing I actually know how to code as well.

Colin

As was stated, it's best to use your eyes and see what looks ok, and is smallest. I'm working on my son's school website, and this one guy keeps doing pages in MS Publisher, swearing "it's the GREATEST program", and saving all the pictures as GIFs. Makes me livid! Just LOOK at the results once before you upload it..... *sigh*

Colin

It lets you save in a variety of formats. You can adjust the level of compression and see the original image vs the optimize one PLUS it shows you the bytes size.

But since I run an online store it's greatest feature for me is that it can run hundreds of images in batch mode, resize them, make thumbnails, etc.

It has saved me hours and when I first optimized my site with it, I was able to knock all the graphic physical file sizes down by 50%.

Nothing beats it for optimization.

In my case, what had happened was that although the guides (slice lines I had predefined) looked the same, they weren't. The only solution (besides reverting to a backup) was to "delete all slices". This doesn't actually delete them, but reverts to the guides you have currently set. Of course, then you have to walk though setting up the rollovers again.

I wasn't quite sure what you meant about the couple of pixels change, though. Could you explain?