Optimizing image size in photoshop

[kehers]

Iv been using photoshop for my graphics of late but found out that it makes my graphics heavy, as in makes the picture size big. Any way of optimizing this with very little or no loss of image quality

[Karen S. Garvin]

There are several things that can help:

1) Make sure your image resolution is set to 72 dpi (Image > Image size)

2) Use RGB mode for images, not CMYK (Image > Mode)

3) Check to make sure there are no layers in your image; if so, flatten the image (Window > Layers > Flatten Image)

4) Save the file as a JPEG. There are two ways to do this: the first way is through (File > Save as) and then you can select compression amounts from 0 to 12, where 0 is very lossy and a small file, and 12 is maximum quality but a larger file.

5) The better way to save a JPEG for the web is to use (File > Save for Web). This will bring up a menu with lots of choices. You can optimize your file for a particular size.

I tried saving a test file as a JPEG with the 12 maximum quality, and saving for web with a target file size of 400K. I ended up with a 704K JPEG and a 60K JPEG, with little or no apparent difference on-screen. One-tenth the size!

You'll have to experiment a bit with settings because there is no one "best" setting for every image. Good luck!