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When saving a Pic what is best?


jr223

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Hi all,

Just a quick question.

I have been making some adjustments editing to some pictures that I took.

I noticed that when I go to save a dialogue box comes up, there is a slider for the quality.

If I save at 100% the file ends up being bigger then the original.

Why is this? does this mean the saved edited file is of a higher quality the the original?

As an example I opened a file pic001 that was 1.8 MB in size.

After doing the edits and saving at 100% the file is now 2.2 MB.

Should I be using the 100% to save the edited files or less to keep them a smaller size or close to the original.

Thanks

JR223

:D

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All JPEGs use lossy compression, which means that you will lose some detail when you save. Selecting a higher quality will cause you to lose less detail when saving, but you cannot avoid losses with JPEG. It will not give you a higher quality than the original. That is impossible because you cannot create detail that you don't have.

For repeated editing/saving, I recommend using a lossless format like PNG. The size will be larger than the JPEG, but you won't lose quality every time you save. When saving the final version, you can switch back to JPEG. This way you only lose quality once: when saving the final version.

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Generally speaking, the output file will never be of higher quality than the input file. However, it is possible that the file size will be larger.

As an example, say you have a JPG that was compressed at 90%. There will be a little compression artifacting and some quality loss, but it will generally look OK and the file size will be lower. Now, if you bring that into an image editor, make a few changes, then save it at 100%, the file size will be notably higher, but the increased level of detail won't undo any compression that was in the original input image. It will preserve the original compression artifacting and won't add to it, but the image won't technically be of higher quality.

Now, if you have an image that does have noticeable compression defects, you can use a few different plugins (GREYCstoration (BETA), Surface Blur) to smooth them out somewhat. Then the output image will generally look better than the input.

The way I do it: if I'm saving an image for use on my own computer, I save it as a full-quality JPG. If I'm saving an image for future use in a compilation, I save it as a PNG - the file will be huge, but PNGs are lossless. So, when I cut out Megan Fox from the background of the original image, I save the resulting file as a PNG. When I make the final compilation for the Desktop wallpaper, I save it as a full quality JPG. Hard drives are both high-capacity and cheap, so unless you're making graphics for a website, there's no reason to not save at full quality.

I am not a mechanism, I am part of the resistance;

I am an organism, an animal, a creature, I am a beast.

~ Becoming the Archetype

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Hi all,

Just a quick question.

I have been making some adjustments editing to some pictures that I took.

I noticed that when I go to save a dialogue box comes up, there is a slider for the quality.

If I save at 100% the file ends up being bigger then the original.

Why is this? does this mean the saved edited file is of a higher quality the the original?

As an example I opened a file pic001 that was 1.8 MB in size.

After doing the edits and saving at 100% the file is now 2.2 MB.

Should I be using the 100% to save the edited files or less to keep them a smaller size or close to the original.

Thanks

JR223

:D

Nothing is wrong with it be being larger than the orginal but the JPG format isn't that great I recommend the png format.

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Nothing is wrong with it be being larger than the orginal but the JPG format isn't that great I recommend the png format.

I Agree all my works are in the png format. The gif format just rips your works to shreds (My opinion) and jpeg isn't the greatest.

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