1. Sinse Adobe Photoshop 5.5, it has a new feature added on with the ImageReady software. But Adobe Photoshop itself has it's own image optimization tool which is the best so far to me out of any programs out there. I will take you step by step on how to save loading time for your web pages. First of all let's say I am going to use this image on the right for my website. This is a design I canned for "Field of Visions" long ago.



2. Now you have to bring up the SAVE AS WEB dialog box. (FILE > SAVE AS WEB, or you can press CTRL, ALT, SHIFT, and S, COMMAND, SHIFT, and CTRL S for Macintosh). And you should get this huge dialog box window to pop up right in front of your image.



3. First look at the tab on top of the window. You should see 4 tabs. Original tab lets you view the current view of the image, optimize views the optimized version of your image. 2- UP and 4- UP is a 2 Window or 4 Window Optimization screen. It automatically puts your image in 2, or 4 different optimization setting Photoshop does for you. I use the 4- UP one all the time. Now choose your best image that loads quite fast. Each square explains how many color it uses, the size and how fast it will load using a certain modem setting.



4. Now many people say that GIF format is best on web based graphics. So here is one of my settings I use for GIF's. I use at least 256 colors if incorporates a photo or more then 5 colors. Or else it will not look that great on websites. Don't Web Snap it. And bring the Dither down to about 90% or below. Also I didn't do it on the image, but be sure the gif is interlaced. That's always best.



5. Now people say that GIF's are the best format for websites. I am going to prove them wrong. JPEG's can be as low in file size and look even *better*, if you do it right using Photoshop's optimizer. First of all check out my settings for JPEG image format.

Set the JPEG setting to HIGH

And check the PROGRESSIVE box.



6. Now the important part comes in the QUALITY. Set it around 70 - 60. And then nothing else. Besure the BLUR is at 0. Now check out the BAUD rate for downloading on a 56K modem. You will see that it's much faster downloading a JPEG compared to Gifs.

Like you see here, it's 4 seconds to download the image that I used.

*One more note. You can change the settings of modem speed download by doing this. Bring down the ARROW button on the optimizer and change the setting. That's it!