Ok, so every time I make a thumbnail for my Gallery post's by the time I've whittled the image down in Photoshop (CS) in order to stay within the specified limit's I've got something about the size of a thumbnail...and unclear because of the low res to boot, and yet I am surrounded by these huge (relatively speaking) clear thumbnails made by all you clever bugger's here! So come on...HOW'S IT DONE?

Use Photoshop's "Save For Web" option. It's the best way to reduce the file size without compromising the image too much.

I resize or crop the image to 200x200 (the maximum allowed here). Then I use the "save for Web" option, reducing quality until it's under 12k.

Thank's Guy's, much appreciated!

I sometimes use the method SamTherapy described, but for for some reason my thumbnails come out clearer when I use Photoshop's "save as .jpeg" option (as opposed to "Save for Web.") The preview window will show you the final file size. You can decrease/increase to get maximum quality within the site's resolution requirements. If you have time, save files both ways and see which looks better to you. Another thing I do is to try various sharpening methods (unsharp mask, various free sharpening filters) on the thumbnail to see if that improves readability. Be subtle if you do this, though. Oversharpening is often worse than the blurring that occurs with resolution shrinkage. Don't sharpen the image at full size before resizing ... do it to the thumbnail-sized image.

another thing I've found that helps is to crop and save with another name. Find the most interesting part of your picture, and crop most of it (but not all, important..;), and use that as the thumbnail. It's helped me..;)

Here's a sharpening trick I heard of and have been using since:

Convert the image to LAB mode. Select the L (lightness) Channel. At this point, the image will look like it's in grayscale mode, but the channels that show color are simply hidden. Use the Unsharp Mask filter with the settings you think look best. Convert back to RGB mode.

The results should look better than they would if you sharpened in RGB mode.

Bitmap shrinker with sharpen set 56/60 percent. then pasted into PSP saved as .jpg.

Here's a tutorial I've been working on (the full one has images, but they're not necesary to follow the directions ;-): Making an attractive thumbnail image One question that I see pop up in forums all the time is "How do I make a good image thumbnail in Photoshop?" I answered that question many times, and finally thought, "Hey, I'll write it all down as a tutorial." So here it is. Thoughts on Thumbnails In a crowded, busy gallery full of images, a thumbnail is probably what will get people to look at your image. Make one that's over-compressed, too small, uninteresting, or, in some cases, too stereotyped, and you'll lose the chance to get the viewer's attention. To make any thumbnail, regardless of size or style, you'll first want to prepare the image by making a duplicate of it (Image: Duplicate), and in the duplicate, flatten any/all layers. Thumbnail styles There are basically three types of thumbnail image, for gallery purposes. Reduction, crop, or select. Reduction Reduction is taking the complete image and simply sizing it down to the appropriate size. This can work if the image isn't too big and thumbnail can be large, but when you need to make a small thumbnail, it can be a disaster. This generally works best for images with minimal complexity and/or distinct areas of color/shapes. To make a thumbnail of this sort, open the image, then resize (Image: Image Size) to the size required. Cropping is taking an area of the image, but not the whole image, and reducing it to the size required. To do this, you need to select the Crop Tool. Set the width and height you need, and set the Resolution to 72 pixels/inch (you don't need anything higher than that for screen viewing). Move the crop tool around the image, playing with the size and location until you find an interesting view, and crop. Voila. Selection To make a thumbnail of this kind, you use the selection tool to choose an interesting area of the image, and then use that, no resizing involved. Choose the Selection Tool, and for Style, choose "Fixed Size" from the dropdown menu. Set the width and height you need, then click on the image. Move the selection around until you find an area you like. You can now copy the selection (Ctrl-C or Edit: Copy) and paste it into a new image (Ctrl-N or File: New, and then Ctrl-v or Edit: Paste), or you can simply crop the existing image (Image: Crop), as you wish. I use the copy and paste method so that if I find I don't like the thumbnail, I can easily copy a different one and paste it in, until I get one that suits me. With the first or second method, you may wish to apply a very light sharpening effect to the thumbnail (Filter: Unsharp Mask, which is adjustable, is a good choice). That, however, is entirely optional. Saving your thumbnail In Photoshop, you definitely want to use the "Save for Web" feature to save your images (not just thumbnails). It allows you to view the image and adjust the file size versus the compression, and the compression engine is excellent. File: Save for Web will open the feature for you. The file size will be at the bottom, the "tweaking" controls on the upper right. You can save as a .jpg, a .gif, or a .png (most of the time, digital art is saved as a .jpg), and you can adjust the level of compression, etc. It's usually fairly simple to get a good quality thumbnail in a filesize below the limit for most digital art galleries. One important note: Make sure that "Save ICC Profile" is NOT ticked! It adds considerable bulk to the file and for all but a few specialized purposes, is useless.

Attached Link: http://www.rainbow-software.org/

Oh yeah, "considerable bulk." Be done with it if you don't want it! Download this nifty l'il app free, JPG View 95 v2.6 from the link. It strips jpeg files of data that isn't image data. It helps when kilobyte increments are an issue, as with thumbnail images. Moreover, run that puppy on your Poser>Runtime>Textures folder. You may be amazed at the considerable buk of unecessary data that it rids your HDD of. For me this is a "must have" helper app, and it's freeware!

I couldn't get a decent thumbnail, no matter what I did, it was 20K. Then I realize I was saving as a progressive jpeg. That basically saves several versions inside itself. So make sure that you aren't doing that.

I have a template set up. PSD File. I draw a square selection around the part of my main image that I want as the thumbnail and copy. I select the center part of my template and use the 'Paste into' option. Then I use the 'Free Transform' option to size the image. You can use 'scale' as that works. Then as others have suggested I use the 'save for the web' option. This method works with portions of your main image or the whole as seen in this image. Helen

Apart from the method I stated above, I found the quickest and easiest way to produce a thumbnail is like so: Duplicate the picture onto another layer. Reduce the canvas size to 200 x 200. Scroll around the duplicated layer until I find a bit that I like. Flatten. Save For Web. I generally don't reduce the whole image for a thumb, but sometimes I may halve the size before I do the steps above.

Attached Link: http://www.irfanview.com/

Although I use Paint Shop Pro for most image editing, I pass images which are going to end up on the web through IrfanView; it seems to compress JPEGs better. There's also a handy thumbnail maker built in, which can even save HTML for you (although I haven't used that).

In Paintshop Pro: Create a new template 200 x 200 Copy your image and paste it to the 200 x 200 new template Move the image around until you are happy with what you see File Export - JPG Image Adjust the compression and pay attention to what you see in the mini window. Pick the maximum amount of compression that you can without affecting the quality of the image. In the case of the thumbnails, pick the amount of compression that brings you the closest to the maximum allowable image file size. Save the file.