jpeg quality in photoshop

paddler4

This is probably a dumb question.


I recently switched to Photoshop (CS5) for pixel level editing, and I am being driven nuts by things that are not well documented. This is one. You can choose various quality levels for saving jpgs in Photoshop.This is supposed to be done by opening the "settings" dialog from the "file save as" dialog. Problem is, there seems to be no way to access the settings dialog. This is what I get from file-save as:


Can anyone tell me how to access the jpeg quality settings?

Many thanks

tomnovy

If you saving it for web. Try using Save For Web. It will apply as well the sRGB colour space. There is as well the quality slider.

Dan7312

Press "Save" then another dialog will pop up that will let you set the jpg quality.

paddler4 wrote: »

This is probably a dumb question.


Can anyone tell me how to access the jpeg quality settings?

Many thanks

paddler4

Dan,

thanks. That works, although it is obscure: the file_save_as dialog pops up when you select file_save, and having to press "save" before setting parameters is counterintuitive.

I don't want to admit how long I spent trying to find this...

Tom--The save for web option only gave me three quality levels, so I think Dan's suggestion is the way to go.

thanks again.

Dan

basflt

when saving as , put a check-mark in ; as a copy box
it will pop up your dialog , also with other file-types

paddler4

Bas,

thanks

Dan

Sam

paddler4 wrote: »

Dan,

thanks. That works, although it is obscure: the file_save_as dialog pops up when you select file_save, and having to press "save" before setting parameters is counterintuitive.

I don't want to admit how long I spent trying to find this...

Tom--The save for web option only gave me three quality levels, so I think Dan's suggestion is the way to go.

thanks again.

Dan

Seriously.................buy a CS5 manual and keep it by the computer.

I admit I don't have one for CS5, had them for earlier versions, but I do for lightroom, and the Mac computer.

Photoshop / lightroom can be very complex as well as powerful.

Sam

tomnovy

Hmmmm that's weird because photoshop has about 12 settings of quality in save for web. Are you using Photoshop elements or full?

paddler4

full, CS5.

I think it may simply not offer all levels for web export. In any case, Dan's solution works.

basflt

you may loose original
as a copy is safer

colourbox

paddler4 wrote: »

thanks. That works, although it is obscure: the file_save_as dialog pops up when you select file_save

Were you starting from an untitled document? That's the only way I can think of that the Save As dialog would come up if you choose Save. Shouldn't be just a Photoshop thing either, it seems to be the way every other app works, which is why the behavior wasn't a surprise to me. Open new doc in Word, Excel, etc. add some data, hit Save...you'll get Save As, because it's never been saved yet to a name and location and needs one.

paddler4 wrote: »

The save for web option only gave me three quality levels

tomnovy wrote: »

Hmmmm that's weird because photoshop has about 12 settings of quality in save for web. Are you using Photoshop elements or full?

The truth is a little more complicated. Photoshop for some reason uses two sets of JPEG level settings. In Save As you get 12 quality levels on the scale. In Save for Web you get 100. The three levels you are seeing (JPEG High, JPEG Medium, JPEG Low) are presets with High set to quality 60 and Low set to quality 10. I've never gotten around to figuring out exactly how the 12 scale maps to the 100 scale.

basflt wrote: »

when saving as , put a check-mark in ; as a copy box
it will pop up your dialog , also with other file-types

No, having As a Copy checked won't make any difference as to whether the options come up. If you start from a non-JPEG and chose JPEG, you'll get JPEG options every time even if that box is unchecked. "As a Copy" is only there to prevent the overwriting of a JPEG original. If you're starting from another file type, "As a Copy" only control whether the document you continue to work on after the save is the one you started with or the copy you saved in the second file type.

paddler4

No, I was not starting from an untitled document.

Folks, thanks for all the continuing helpful comments, but Dan7312's comment completely solved the issue.

malch

paddler4 wrote: »

The save for web option only gave me three quality levels, so I think Dan's suggestion is the way to go.

Yes, be aware that Save for Web also strips all of your metadata (EXIF, IPTC etc.) from the image and that may not be what you expect or want.

And, although it converts the image to sRGB, it does not save it with an embedded ICC. This means some software will not color manage the image. That will likely be an issue for the many Firefox users since, by default, it will color manage tagged images only.

These things make Save for Web pretty useless as far as I'm concerned.

BinaryFx

Save for Web has options for including metadata (ICC, EXIF etc).


Sincerely,

Stephen Marsh

http://binaryfx.customer.netspace.net.au/ (coming soon!)
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/

malch

BinaryFx wrote: »

Save for Web has options for including metadata (ICC, EXIF etc).

You're right at least at CS5. I stand corrected.

Was it always that way?

However, it seem that MakerNotes are never saved (even if one selects ALL metadata). Maybe that's why I wrote it off a long while ago? However, it does seem quite a bit more useful than I suggested. Thanks!