[Angela]

I'm using Paint Shop Pro and am trying to re-size images to fit the Pixalo size rules.

Normally when I crop and reduce to somewhere between 600 and 800 pixels, I can easily get the image to under 200KB but the images I'm resizing have had limited cropping and to get to under 200kb, I'm having to come down to about 200 pixels on the longest side and this is causing major quality issues - the images become very pixalated.

Any ideas on what I should be doing to reduce the size but maintain quality?

[silkstone]

Because JPEGs are compressed, the file size depends on both the dimensions (in pixels) and the amount of detail in the photo - the more detail, the less it can be compressed.

In PSP, if you Save As and choose JPEG, there is an Options button which lets you set the JPEG quality - i.e. the amount of compression - on a scale from 1 to 100 where 1 is theoretically lossless.

For high quality I suggest setting this to 5. For the web, if you need to reduce file size, you can go down to 15 or even 20 without any noticeable deterioration.

Once you have set this parameter, it is remembered for all future JPEG saves until you change it again, so remember to revert to 5 next time you want high quality.

EDIT/ Oops - I got the figures the wrong way round - low is best - now corrected.

[Angela]

silkstone - you are a star! Thank you!!

[Dabhand16]

Also, don't forget to reduce your dpi to 72.