Making Images Smaller?

[Laguna's Girl]

I have been using Adobe Photoshop to make some graphics but they all turn out too large in file size to use them for what I want, eg one of the graphics I made is 24KB but it has to be smaller than 10KB to be able to be used for what I want.

I know I can make the actual image dimensions smaller, but I was wondering is it possible to make the file size smaller without losing too much quality. I have all the images saved as JPEG, and they should be either JPEG or GIF to be used for what I want but saving them as JPEG makes them too big. I tried opening the images in Paint and saving them as Gifs but that just made them look horrible!

Can anyone help? I've spent a lot of time on these graphics and I hope there is an easy solution to this.

[azzey]

File -> Publish for Web

I believe you can then set compression properties, but don't quote me on that--it's been a while since I used Photoshop.

[mjc]

Also, unless you absolutely want it, make sure it isn't auto-generating a thumbnail or saving all sorts of 'creation' info and tags, etc. PShop is known for bloating file size with 'extras'.

[Sylvander]

A method I use...

1. Open the image [jpg file] in "Microsoft Photo Editor" [part of the Microsoft Office suite].
2. Use "Image->Autobalance", then "Image->Balance" to make adjustment to the brightness [or whatever], even if only by a near-zero amount.
3. This will often drastically reduce the size of the file. My guess is that it does it by eliminating unnecessary precision in the image.
4. After doing that the only thing I know how to do is to "Image->Resize", or crop.

[Laguna's Girl]

I actually figured out how to do it just after I posted this (I was then too busy changing the file sizes that I forgot to post back). I did it the way azzey suggested, by going to "Save for Web".

Thanks anyway for the help.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Not sure about PS, but the program I use can vary the size by pixel or dimensions and dpi. It can also adjust the image quality in 1% gradations all of which affect the filesize of the image. There's many other effects as well but these are the ones I usually use to make them ready for the web (besides cropping and brightness/contrast).