How do I shrink a file to a desired size?

T
Posted By
TomBrooklyn
Mar 13, 2007
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309
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Myspace allows photos up to 600k. I load up a photo in PS7. How do I know what size it is now? How can I shrink it and how do I know how much I am shrinking it so I can take it to exactly 600k or as close as possible?

I tried Image/Image Size. It says my photo is 9.8" x 10.2" and 150dpi. Is that the way it came out of the camera or is that some arbitrary setup?

I appear to be able to change the dpi. What does that actually do? How does that affect quality? 150dpi doesn’t seem like much. A typical camera sensor nowadays packs a couple thousand pixels into the length of an inch doesn’t it?
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TB
Tony Blair
Mar 13, 2007
wrote in message
Myspace allows photos up to 600k. I load up a photo in PS7. How do I know what size it is now? How can I shrink it and how do I know how much I am shrinking it so I can take it to exactly 600k or as close as possible?
I tried Image/Image Size. It says my photo is 9.8" x 10.2" and 150dpi. Is that the way it came out of the camera or is that some arbitrary setup?
I appear to be able to change the dpi. What does that actually do? How does that affect quality? 150dpi doesn’t seem like much. A typical camera sensor nowadays packs a couple thousand pixels into the length of an inch doesn’t it?

If it is for the internet – use the save for web function!! But first reduce it’s dimensions to a suitable size for displaying – There should be some indication on your website of suitable sizes! If you cannot find anything, try reducing the width to about 600 pixels wide! let the depth take care of itself! if to small or too big, experiment!!
JJ
John Joslin
Mar 13, 2007
You asked half a dozen questions in that post.

I suggest you do a bit of reading in the manual or the Photoshop Help area to get a rough idea about image size and then come back with a more specific query on what you haven’t understood.

On the other hand someone may come in and give you six answers.
C
chrisjbirchall
Mar 13, 2007
The interweb whatsit doesn’t care about resolution (it’s ppi incidentally not dpi, which printer speak), web browsers are only concerned about the actual pixel dimensions.

After saving a file as a Jpeg, you can view it in your browser or Windows Explorer and read the file size. There is no formula that equates dimensions to file size, because the Jpeg algorithms produce large files for highly detailed images and smaller files for images with large areas of plain colour.

Not sure about PS7, but in the later versions of PS you can target a "file size" in the Save for Web dialogue. But to be honest, if you are saving pictures no bigger than (say) quarter screen size for MySpace, you are likely to be under the file size requirement anyway.

As far as affecting quality is concerned, altering the resolution in the Image Size dialogue will only alter the actual image if you have "Resample" checked ON.

Don’t know if that’s covered the six, but who’s counting?

Oh yes, John was 😉
P
Phosphor
Mar 13, 2007
I just opened an image of my brother that’s 1750px × 1313px. This is in the ballpark as far as file size (actually a little larger), as the image you’re starting with (1470px × 1530px)

In ImageReady I set the compression to JPEG at a setting of 20.

File size was reduced to 328KB, and it didn’t look too bad at all.

Now, having said that, It still opens as HUGE on the monitor. MySpace isn’t really meant for displaying huge images like that. If you want to fill the viewer’s monitor when they click on the smaller MySpace gallery image, I’d suggest you reduce the full size image to no more than about 650px in height before you Save for Web. Perhaps even a little smaller. This way they shouldn’t have to scroll much—if at all—to see the whole image at once.

That is, unless you have some specific reason for offering a HUGE image. In that case, you might be better off offering the smaller one for viewing, and the larger version for off-site downloading.

But something tells me this is just going to be for your picture gallery.

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