Optimization for Images tutorial...

Often times, photos and images may be too big for the web. If it takes too long to load the image, then people won't wait. Fortunately Photoshop provides a way to do this easily.

When saving your image, don't use the standard save. Even with the ability to set the .jpeg compression, it still does not do a good job. Instead use Save for Web. When you do that, a requester will come up with a preview of the picture you are saving. The most important slider is the one that lets you set the percentage of compression. In the bottom left corner as you move the slider, it will show you how long it will take at 56K and how big it will be saved as. Surprisingly enough you can go down to 35% or so without too much loss (depending on the image) and that will save a ton of bandwidth and disk space for that image. Then when you hit Okay, it will ask you if you want to save. You can use this for GIF and JPEG files, which is what you should be using on your site anyway.