Image reduction

[usuallyconfused]

Out of my camera comes a 2048x1536 1.4MB *.jpg image which I wish to reduce for use on a web site. (I could have set the camera to 800x600, but the point is the same and in many cases I am using old images.)

If I insert this image into a web page, it is obviously huge, so I need to reduce it, which I can either do by reducing the visual size of the image on the page, (which isn't too clever since it is still a 1.4MB image coming down your dial-up), or I resize it in a program like PSP.

The problem is that quality is lost between my 1.4MB original and my PSP reduced image, even though they may be identical in size on the page. Well, you can't have everything and going from 1.4MB to 46KB is bound to loose something.

OK, well I tried something. I took a screen shot in PSP of my web page with my two images, cut and pasted the original image (1.4MB in reality, but resized on the page) and then saved it as a new, small image of only 19KB and then put it on my web page next to the other two images.

And it was identical to my original!

So, if you take big *.jpg image, put it on a web page, or even insert it into Word, and then resize it on the page, you get a high quality small image, but still 1.4MB on file which is useless for web pages. If you use any reduction method you can think of to actually reduce the original, as you would within PSP, you end up with nice small image, but the quality is reduced. Try my screen shot method and you end up with quality and a small file size.

Can anyone tell me why, instead of this whole sampling, Smart Size, Bilinear resample thing, a program can't mimic what I have done and get the best of both worlds? Or have I missed something?

Thanks.

 

[ChrisHunt]

In what way is the quality of the resized-in-PSP image reduced? This hasn't been my experience. Just-reduced images are often a little "soft", but a touch of sharpening soon sorts that out.

-- Chris Hunt

http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk

http://www.napitalia.org.uk

http://www.leicesteryha.org.uk

 

[usuallyconfused]

Thanks Chris.

The best way is for you to look yourself. If you go to

http://www.evolveinternet.net/public

you will see an example of the images.

What do you think?

Tim

 

[tviman]

I agree with Chris. I routinely work with large, hi-res images and reduce them to 72 or 96 dpi jpgs for web pages. Yes, there is a minor quality loss and, as Chris stated, a little "softening" around the edges that is cleaned up nicely with the "Sharpen" effect.

However, you can't create a sharp 32x64 thumbnail from 2048x1536 jpg without a lot of manipulation. Ideally, you should try to take pictures in TIF format. The quality is far better and the image is easier to manipulate than a JPG.

There's always a better way. The fun is trying to find it!