Just a quick silly question... How do you make such big and clear thumbnails of your work in the gallery, and still stay under the 15k limit ? Mine either have to be so small, or so compressed (jpg) that they always look like crap. Can someone help me ? Thanks !

I create a 200x200 image at 72dpi and paste my full image in (using Photoshop), move it around until I get my desired bit and then Flatten, then use the "Save for Web" feature under File and move the slider back to about 50-80% normally to get my under 15k then save the new image, and as a JPG. I never notice any real difference in quality from the original.

Hey thanx, lhiannan ! I just tried your suggestion, and it works like magic ! I've had photoshop for so long, I never even noticed the save for web feature ! Again, thanks a lot !

I never liked the 'save for web' results, I usually zoom in on a section of the image and then render it at 200x200 else I take a clip of the original (while still in PSD format) then sharpen it before (sometimes after - depending) I shrink it, then play with Save As resolution settings till I get one aceptable by the gallery. I've heard others add noise before reducing the size but never quite figured that one out?

I used to do that, but it became too much of a hassle (or I got too lazy...). I figure with a thumb, it doesn't have to be as nifty and awe-inspiring as the full-size version, so a little compression (and I mean a little) doesn't hurt.

I just resize to 200x200 and save for web, and use the jpg format. (Adobe PhotoShop). It works like a charm.

I use ACDSee to make my gallery thumbs. igohigh you add the noise and slide the transparentcy level to a smidge above the zero. Its suppose to help.

In photoshop I set my cropping tool to the pixel size and depth (2oo px by 200px, 72dpi) I need then crop the image. Sharpen once. Then I use "save to web" at about 60%..which usually brings the size down enough. I can drop to about 30% before getting fuzzies. Tip for images that have to be heavily compressed: before compression add about 2% monochromatic gaussian noise. THis gives the compression more color info to work on, and it doesn't make those nasty blocks as quickly.

There's a big difference in the Save for Web between PhotoShop5 and 6x. I never used to use Imageready before, I used Boxtop ProJpeg, but now, ImageReady does a splendid job--even at 30%. Emily