Save for Web

Save for Web


This is an important step for publishing your image on the web. Photoshop has very good optimization options that

allow you to balance photo quality and file size.

Go to File
Save for Web and Devices

If you get this message,

you might want to make the file smaller using the Image Size option before you Save for Web. Consider that many

laptop screens are only 1024 pixels wide. Most websites are around 800 pixels wide. So, make the image the exact size

you want it to be on you website before saving it for the web. This will minimize your file size and make images load very

quickly when people view you site. Note: you can do this in the Save for Web window but it is slower and if the image is

really big, the dialog box might freeze up. If you get the warning above and continue, it will probably freeze up.

In the Save for Web and Devices window, first choose your file type. JPEG and PNG-8 are the best options for the web.

JPEG tend to be smaller in file size, Photoshop also has a nice option to change the quality of a JPEG to make the file

smaller. PNGs are larger but do preserve the quality more; PNGs are particularly good for images that have a lot of text,

like maps. I prefer JPEGs for photos.

In the bottom left side of this window you will see a preview of the file size.

Say you want to crop your image a little. Use this tool from the toolbar on the left side. Push Enter when you have

selected the area you want to crop, push Esc if you want to clear the selection and start over.

There are a few options for setting the cropping tool. 1) you can simply drag a box around what you want to crop. 2) if

you hold down Shift while you drag the mouse, it will maintain a square selection. 3) on the crop toolbar (right below

the main File Menu) you can select the width and height of the selection you want to crop. In these two fields right click

and choose the units you want (pixels, inches, points, etc.).