I use Photoshop LE mostly (cause I'm cheap like that...) - it SUCKS at saving in PNG. Is there a plug in or freebie program I can turn native photoshop work into nicely compressed PNG files?
[quote:5bc50294af="xerexes"]
I may have to get out a dictionairy for "potmize" though. ..
You are not aware of the fact that I am a horrible speller and a bad typist. Two things that drive my wife and Rob Balder batty. I ment to say optomize.
I use "Exorcist" to convert my GIFs to PNGs.
I use Photoshop for all the heavy lifting, and then I use LView Pro to resize my images for the web and optimize the palette for GIF. Then I drop the resulting GIF on Exorcist to generate the PNG I need.
My experience with GIF and PNG is exactly the opposite of what William_G described. For flood-filled images (no gradients, but with smooting around the line art) GIF compresses better for files with a size lower than about 15k. PNG compresses better for files above that size. Note that for maximum compression you need to turn interlacing OFF (and do it for both GIF and PNG, so you're comparing apples and apples). Also note that when reducing palette sizes, if you dither you can compress the palette further, but your image size will bloat because of the little specks. I never dither my GIFs.
For images with gradients and/or smooth shading, I use JPG (unless I WANT the posterized artifacts).
GIF is a lossless compression format that's restricted to 8bit (256) colors per image with a 1bit transparency channel.
PNG is a lossless compression format that can do up to 24 bit color with 8 bit transparency channel. The 8bit transparency channel is mostly a moot point since many browsers do not display the transparency properly.
As such, the order of the day for both PNG and GIF is that images with large blank areas or solid colors will compress nicely, whereas pictures that have say.. lots of dithering or speckling will not save as nicely.
JPG is a lossy compression format that does up to 24bit color. There's no concept of transparency. Its designed, and is ideal, for photographs.
I would say that JPG is a good one-shoe-fits-all format - when in doubt use JPG.
PNG's lossless compression uses a more efficient algorithm than the one GIF uses. However its very rare that one comes across a true comparison test. In most cases when you save as PNG you're saving in 24 bit color, which means each PNG pixel requires 3 times as much memory as a 1 8bit color GIF pixel.
All that said... getting back on topic.. I've found the "Save for Web" function in Photoshop 7 to be pretty robust in terms of exporting images to PNG format.
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Photoshop Sucks at Saving in PNG
I use Photoshop LE mostly (cause I'm cheap like that...) - it SUCKS at saving in PNG. Is there a plug in or freebie program I can turn native photoshop work into nicely compressed PNG files?
RE: Photoshop Sucks at Saving in PNG
Sure. Download the freeware SuperPNG plug-in for Photoshop from http://www.fnordware.com/superpng/ and everything will be joy and fun.
RE: Photoshop Sucks at Saving in PNG
Thanks Miguel! I'll try that tonight.
RE: Photoshop Sucks at Saving in PNG
I tried SuperPNG and I'm still getting HUUUGE file sizes. Like 300 + whereas I can get under 100K in GIF. Any other tips out there?
RE: Photoshop Sucks at Saving in PNG
With Photoshop 7, I have no problems saving PNGs. This thread made me test that out. But I got a 72 dpi image with 64 colors the size of something like 4x10 inches down to 86k, GIF at the same setting gave me 90.
I dunno...
RE: Photoshop Sucks at Saving in PNG
Here's what I have found:
Pngs are better than Gifs at smaller sizes... Under 10 k
Gifs are better at larger sizes.
Jpgs suck for everything because they cause artifacts, but if you dont mind that, or are displaying a photo image, then it's passable.
Gimp is better than Photoshop 7 at making PNGs... But I cant say about Photoshop CS
RE: Photoshop Sucks at Saving in PNG
Gifs don't work to well when you have gradients, though. I find that artifacts don't bug me that much.
RE: Photoshop Sucks at Saving in PNG
Likewise, I've had no trouble saving comics as .png in photoshop 7 and most of my file sizes are around 90k. However, my comics are in grayscale, so that may make a difference.
RE: Photoshop Sucks at Saving in PNG
PNGs are an interesting beast. They save best for b/w and solid colors. Any hint of gradient pixelates under too much compression, which is a little more acceptable with dithering in GIF. I always run my saved for web images through xat.com's image optimizer and solve most of my problems that way. I don't like uploading files over 80k anymore
RE: Photoshop Sucks at Saving in PNG
I am taking a class in photoshop. The proffessor said that gifs are good with flat colors and jpegs are good for photographs when you are talking about the web. I personally save stuff as uncompressed Tiffs or psds when I am working. When posting to the web I discovered how to potimize different slices into jpgs and gifs for faster load times. I can't begin to explain this to you, but I can do it if I need to.
Re: RE: Photoshop Sucks at Saving in PNG
[quote:33246bc61b="jandrewworld"]I discovered how to potimize different slices into jpgs and gifs for faster load times
I'm aware of slicing although I've never owned the right software. I may have to get out a dictionairy for "potmize" though. ..