Avatar compression help?

[MeridiaNx]

Hi all, bit of an odd post I know but it seems lots of people here are Photoshop savvy. Have a piccy I wanted to make my new avatar, but no matter what I do with it in Photoshop I can't reduce the file size anywhere near the 19.5KB limit. It is an 80KB file and the smallest I can get it is 45ish, that's by cropping the main part of the photo in the centre, then reducing the pixel height and width, then saving in a poorer quality.

Other people seem to have quite detailed stuff in their avatars and I can't work out why I can't get this to work :confused:

http://forums.sv650.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=343&stc=1&d=1184951689

Anyone able to help out/tell me what Photoshop tools I can use to shrink it while keeping it readable?

Ta in advance :smt023

[the white rabbit]

Cut it down to about 130 by 130 px and then use Save for Web, not save.

[MeridiaNx]

Aha, never even saw that there was an option along those lines. How does that differ then in the way it saves the file? Just out of curiosity.

EDIT: Will try it out after dinner, have to use the other PC, no Photoshop on here.

[the white rabbit]

Dont know, except its worked for me on all kinds of weeby stuff.

[MeridiaNx]

Cheers Dr Rich, worked like a charm. By using that option I was able to swap it from being a GIF to a JPG which saved a lot of memory instantly and let me make the image bigger with the extra space.

Thanks a lot :smt023

[Stingo]

Hmmm...save for web...so that's how it's done...:-k :smt023

[Richie]

Thank you for posting this, as You've just helped me out too. ;-)

[zunkus]

Try saving as 'gif'

[stuartyboy]

Hmmm...save for web...so that's how it's done...:-k :smt023

Depends which version and how it's been set up. "Save for web" greyed out on my v7. Photoshop's not really that great at compressing stuff for the web. There's a companion app that ships with most versions of photoshop called Imageready. This is what you should be using for web work.

[Quiff Wichard]

geeks...