Date:         Wed, 6 Feb 2008 10:31:56 -0800
Reply-To:     Dave <fritzthevan@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dave <fritzthevan@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Freeware to reduce image file sizes for my Vanagon website?
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

Neil,

Download size of images on your website is controlled by 3 factors:
1) Cropping
2) Image dimensions, in pixels
3) jpeg quality

Cropping:
First, crop the image down to the minimum.  If it's not an artistic
composition, you can be ruthless.

Image dimensions:
Most people in webland are viewing on a screensize of around
1000-1200 pixels wide.  Generally, you don't need to exceed that.  As
mentioned in another post, resize your images to something like 1000
pixels on the longest dimension, plus/minus 10%.  In rare cases
requiring high detail, this step could cause problems.

Jpeg quality:  choose the lowest you can stand, while getting the
visual quality you want.  This is chosen while saving the image on disk.

Here's an example:
http://seakayakbritishcolumbia.com/van-53Kb.jpg

More:
When you're considering the transfer size of your images and your
target is the web, it's easier to not think about DPI (dots per
inch)- rather, think about pixel dimensions, e.g., 1000x750.  DPI
applies better in the world of print.

Your full-size images are currently sized 2048x1536: that's the main
reason they are larger than you want (~150Kb vs. ~50Kb).  Web
browsers automatically zoom out on such big images.

You could google "freeware image resizer" and choose a program that
does what you need.  Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com) is a little
more extravagant, but will do what you want.  "Batch" image resizers
won't crop for you, but will do the other stuff.

Hope this helps,
(the other) Dave Marshall

91 GL camper "Fritz"


>Hi all.
>
>Was inspired by these web pages:
>
>http://jones.colorado.edu/jones/BByBridge/
>
>Clean looking, with good sized images that load relatively quickly. On
>the whole, I prefer this k.i.s.s. apporoach to web design.
>
>The average size of my uploaded images to goolepages is 150kb.
>
>Could I make the same size images smaller in file size w/o too much
>loss in quality?
>
>Is there freeware that would do this?  ("batch" process to a bunch of images)
>
>Mac or Windows freeware is fine. (Mac OS X or Win2K)
>
>Thanks for any pointers,
>
>Neil.