I have seen many questions over the years asking how to resize gallery images and create thumbnails that fit within the file size limits of this site.

I know that people will each have their own ideas on how to do it, but here is mine.

In Paintshop Pro, do the following:

1.  File

1. Export

2. JPEG Optimizer

3. Ignore the "Wizard" button in the lower left of the next window. Instead adjust the compression dial.  The original image shows in the left window, the resulting image from the compression value you selected shows in the right window.  Magnify the image once if needed, but no more because you are concerned about the overall appearance of the image, not each pixel.

Lower number equals better image quality but a larger file size. Higher number equals reduced image quality but a smaller file size.  Play with the dial until you get your image size under 512 KB   [524288 bytes] while maintaining the best possible image quality that you can. The perfect balance is to get the compression number to give you a file size under 512 KB with no visible reduction of image quality.   Between 0 and  20 usually works well. After that loss of quality is usually noticable.

If you notice that you are having to use too high of a compression value and that the image quality is becoming noticably reduced,  exit from the jpeg optimizer . You will need to reduce the dimenstional  size of your image.  But don't do it through "Resizing"  because the image quality will often be reduced and using bicubic resampling and sharpening doesn't always preserve the quality. Not to mention you will be double compressing it which will result in even poorer quality. Shaving off a few pixels from the outside edges of the image is a good way to resize images if you aren't committed to a specific dimension and need to compress the file.

 Instead do the following to reduce the size of the image:

A)  Selections / Select All
B) Selections / Modify / Contract = X number of pixels IE: 10 (equals 20 pixels in both height and width)
C) Image / Crop to Selection

Then go back and do the JPEG Optimizer again (again ignore the Wizard button).

Once you have your file size 512 KB or less and have maintained a good image quality, save the image.

You can do the same thing in Photoshop but you have to go to "File" and "Save to Web" and it's pretty much the same thing.

As for saving a thumnail...

1. Create a new blank image 200 x 200 pixels
2. Select your gallery image and "Copy"
3. Select your blank thumbnail image and "Paste" the gallery image into it as a "New Layer". It will be much too big, but don't worry about the parts that are not showing, they will be removed when you save the image later.
4. Move the image around inside the thumbnail image until you get a preview that you like.
5. Save it using the same technique as above  in order to get the file size less than 15 KB   [15360 bytes].

You will always end up with crisp clear gallery images and thumbs.

While this is my guide and it works well for me, I do realize that there are other methods out there. Feel free to post them here so that people can try out various methods and find one that works the best for them.

Thank you for this.  My thumbnails are so terrible that few people will look at my art.  Next picture I make, I will give this a try and see how things go.

I simply use the IrfanView for my thumbnails which is free to download. I just open the image as jpg and select the image area where I want to crop by dragging a square equal box with the mouse and crop the image, after that go to resize the image and change the pixels to 200x200 and save it in the same directory where the original image exists. I name the thumbnails  with T-  such as T-imagename  so that I know T-  is for thumbnails.
I always post work my images in TIF format in PhotoShop when it's done I save a copy of it as jpg to post it in my gallery but PhotoShop saves images with too many kilobytes so the image becomes large like 800-900 KB even sometimes 1 MB this takes longer time to open them in the gallery so what I do is open the jpg image in IrfanView and save it again (over write) as jpg file, this will reduce the size of the image and becomes around 200-300KB  viewing it in the gallery will be faster. I don't worry overwriting the jpg image since I always keep the original rendered image as a TIF file.

@awadissk--Great point about lossless format!  I didn't know until THIS WEEK, every time you open a JPG and save it, YOU LOOSE INFORMATION!!  BEWARE!!

Another thing to keep in mind is content of the THUMBNAIL!  Look at your picture---is there a facinating detail? Some part that captures the spirit of it moreso than any other part?  Remember you can do a whole different pic to use as a thumbnail!

Just think of what draws you into opening other pictures from their thumbnails and try to do something similiar with your own.

REMEMBER!  The thumbnail is a COMMERCIAL an ADVERTISMENT for your main program--the render you are posting.  Find the drama, humor, pathos or whatever in your pic and distill it to one little part.

One more thing--be creative and HAVE fun!  Some of the thumbs are top drawer pieces of work--do the same, and your hits will go up!  ^__^ V,,

Attached Link: http://www.thegimp.org

I pull up the picture, go to the Crop tool, and select almost all the interesting stuff in about a 195x195, Save As (I use filename_cropd, but that's me) Then post to 'rosity in the normal manner.

**JOELGLAINE
**Nice tips but I don't think my hits will go up or down from now on because of the thumbnails rules and regulations, I don't know if you are aware about the thumbnails issue. What you will crop to crop nudity is not allowed, breasts not allowed, butts not allowed, transparent cloths not allowed soon nothing will be allowed. It looks to me we are going out of the civilization and going back to stone age time with these rules though you can see such thing almost everywhere TV, Magazines, at home, Internet etc. What we are showing with our thumbnails compare to those dirty sites are harmless if they are concerned about these things they should concentrate more to stop those dirty sites (you know what I mean by dirty sites) since today any teenager has access to it and no one can stop it.
Showing thumbnails without nudity OK how about one opens that image the the whole image is nudity so where is the difference. No nudity on thumbnails allowed but nudity on the main image is allowed so this they call it rules.
Thanks for your tips anyway.

I knew about the nudity issue.  If that's the rule, that's the rule.  This IS a private site.  The people that own this site can make any rules they want.  We can live with them, or leave.  That is an unfortunate set of circumstances, but that is where we're at.

Most of my renders are nudes, but I'm bothered by the limitations.  If I want to post here, I better find a way to operate within the rules or leave.  Sometimes creativity flows from conflict.  This IS a conflict to me, and I want to win it by thinking creatively.

We're all in the same boat.  We better figure out a new way to row, or abandon ship.

Hey...thanks for this Acadia!  I never even knew this Export Optimizer existed...I was always picking compression ratios and then checking file manager and going back and forth...this is way easier! :)

Thanks Acadia... that is very useful information.  I've been using "SmartSaver Pro".  I think that's an excellent program.

Oh wow! I have a sticky!!!

Glad people are finding the information helpful.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?tutorial_id=1570

Here's what I do. I use Photoshop, but any image editor will do that can compress images. I finish my render, pull it into photoshop and add my name and postwork. Then I save it as "title" final. jpg. The I resave as TMB "title".jpeg. Then in the TMB copy I crop the part I want as a thumbnail, make sure it is 200 by 200 or less and save. Then I pull both the fullsize image and the thumb into Photoshop's Imageready and compress them to rendersosity's requirements. Then upload. Only takes few minutes and you have control over your thumnail.

there's a free program called STPHMKRE that i use to put the border around my pictures and to make the thumbnails
i just can't remember where i found it maybe someone else knows maybe do a search on the net

In PaintShopPro, I simply go Save AsAdvanced and use the % Slider.
Is your method a better way to go?

Many Thanks
DR

Quote - I have seen many questions over the years asking how to resize gallery images and create thumbnails that fit within the file size limits of this site.

I know that people will each have their own ideas on how to do it, but here is mine.

In Paintshop Pro, do the following:

1.  File

1. Export

2. JPEG Optimizer

3. Ignore the "Wizard" button in the lower left of the next window. Instead adjust the compression dial.  The original image shows in the left window, the resulting image from the compression value you selected shows in the right window.  Magnify the image once if needed, but no more because you are concerned about the overall appearance of the image, not each pixel.

Lower number equals better image quality but a larger file size. Higher number equals reduced image quality but a smaller file size.  Play with the dial until you get your image size under 512 KB   [524288 bytes] while maintaining the best possible image quality that you can. The perfect balance is to get the compression number to give you a file size under 512 KB with no visible reduction of image quality.   Between 0 and  20 usually works well. After that loss of quality is usually noticable.

If you notice that you are having to use too high of a compression value and that the image quality is becoming noticably reduced,  exit from the jpeg optimizer . You will need to reduce the dimenstional  size of your image.  But don't do it through "Resizing"  because the image quality will often be reduced and using bicubic resampling and sharpening doesn't always preserve the quality. Not to mention you will be double compressing it which will result in even poorer quality. Shaving off a few pixels from the outside edges of the image is a good way to resize images if you aren't committed to a specific dimension and need to compress the file.

 Instead do the following to reduce the size of the image:

A)  Selections / Select All
B) Selections / Modify / Contract = X number of pixels IE: 10 (equals 20 pixels in both height and width)
C) Image / Crop to Selection

Then go back and do the JPEG Optimizer again (again ignore the Wizard button).

Once you have your file size 512 KB or less and have maintained a good image quality, save the image.

You can do the same thing in Photoshop but you have to go to "File" and "Save to Web" and it's pretty much the same thing.

As for saving a thumnail...

1. Create a new blank image 200 x 200 pixels
2. Select your gallery image and "Copy"
3. Select your blank thumbnail image and "Paste" the gallery image into it as a "New Layer". It will be much too big, but don't worry about the parts that are not showing, they will be removed when you save the image later.
4. Move the image around inside the thumbnail image until you get a preview that you like.
5. Save it using the same technique as above  in order to get the file size less than 15 KB   [15360 bytes].

You will always end up with crisp clear gallery images and thumbs.

While this is my guide and it works well for me, I do realize that there are other methods out there. Feel free to post them here so that people can try out various methods and find one that works the best for them.

Example above

Quote - Marinar, I have PSP 9 so followed your suggestions and I get an image the size of 200x200 that doesn't get bigger when you click on it.

Example above

The only time an image gets bigger when you click on it is if it's bigger to start with.

In this case the image you posted looks like it's 200 x 200 so it won't get bigger when you click on the image, all that will happen is the image will show up in a new window.

if your image was say 800 x 800 when you posted it here, it would be reduced in size and when you click on the image it would show the 800 x 800 size.

I made a mistake. My post should've been directed to you Acadia. I followed your tutorial. Sorry. I thought I was to paste the original(500x500) image as a new layer in a 200x200 to make it a thumbnail. I'm so confused.

So I should post big images and the forum will automatically reduce it in threads until someone clicks on it?

I see what you mean!

Let me see if I can explain this so it's easy to understand.

When you make a picture for your gallery you obviously want it to be large so people can see the detail.  I frequently use the size  800 x 800 because I like symmetry.

You would render the image in Poser at a size of 800 x 800.  Then take it to your graphic program and do whatever work you want on it until the image is just right for you and ready to be uploaded to your gallery.

Save the file according to the method I have posted above.

Now you need a thumbnail image.

So create a new blank template of 200 x 200.

Go back to your big image that is ready for the gallery and copy it.

Go back to the 200 x 200 blank template and then paste the big image there as a new layer.

Move the image around until you see something in the 200 x 200 space that you like. What you see will be the what is on your final thumbnail image.  Everything off the edge of that 200 x 200 space will be deleted once you save the image as a .jpg. All you will be left with is a portion of your image in a 200 x 200 file.

The reason I do it that way is that my thumbnails are always 200 x 200.

When you upload your image in the gallery, you will upload the big 800 x 800 image, AND the 200 x 200 thumbnail image.

Renderosity will create a link between the thumbnail and the big image so when you are in the gallery it will show the big image.  It's not the thumbnail that is increasing in size or "opening up" to show a larger image.  The thumbnail will always be just 200 x 200 after you save it unless you go and resize it to other dimensions, but the picture part of it will always be the same once you have saved it.

When you post in the forums, that's a different story.  In the forums the images are resized to fit into a preset limit.  So if you upload an image in the forum that is say 800 x 800, it will be reduced to a smaller size so that it won't stretch out the forum and result in left-right scrolling. In these cases when you click the image the image will show up as their full size in the new window.  However if your image that you are posting in the forum is less than the preset size for the forums (not sure what that is), then the image will not be reduced in size and even when you click it will show as the same size in the new window.  An example of that is the 200 x 200 image you posted above of your parameter dials.

Try it for yourself and see.  You know what happens with a 200 x 200 image because you just posted one above.  Now go and create one that is 800 x 800 and post it here. The image will be smaller in the post, but once you click the image it will show up at 800 x 800.

Oh wait this is for galleries? I thought it was the forums. Didnt know how to put thumbnails in the forums when asking a question so people can see the diagrams. Sorry big misunderstanding.

Moving this up as I see there have been queries about how to do nice thumbnails.

Thanks Acadia !  I was about to write a post asking the best way to do this, and then I read your tut lol. Great timing as always ;)