Preparing Your Graphics with Photo Studio

[ Preparing Your Graphics with Photo Studio ]

The purpose of this document is to walk you through the steps involved in properly preparing your photos for use on your website.
When finished we will have:

Reduced the image resolution of your photos to 72 dpi.
Adjusted the physical dimensions of your photo through sizing and cropping.
Saved you photos in the proper file format.
Used file compression to achieve proper file sizes.
If you do not currently have the Photo Studio software, a copy may be obtained by: [ Clicking Here ]
Assuming you have a copy of the Photo Studio software installed on your computer,
Lets Get Started:

Start your Photo Studio software.
From the text menu at the top of the software screen choose File then Open.
Locate the photo file on your computer that you wish to work with and double click on it.
Your selected photo should now be loaded & displayed in an image window within the Photo Studio software.
Open the image window to full by clicking on the little square box [ ] between the [-] & the [X] located in the upper right hand corner of your image window.
From the text menu at the top of the software screen choose Edit then Image Size...
Type 72 into the Resolution box and click [ Ok ].
Your image should now be in a resolution of 72 dpi which is the standard resolution for files displayed on the internet.
Now again, from the text menu at the top of the software screen choose, Edit then Image Size...
Type 250 into the Height box and click [ Ok ].
Your image should now have a maximum height of 250 pixels. This is the maximum height recommended for photos intented to be displayed on the internet. You can always go smaller if you like.
Locate & Click on the Select icon from the tool bar on the right side of your software screen towards the top.
The Select icon looks like a square box made up of dots or dashes with a small arrow in the lower right hand corner of the icon. If you place your mouse over it for a second or two, the text "Select" should appear. Now you know you have the correct tool!
Place your mouse pointer just outside the upper left hand corner of your photo.
Holding your left mouse button down, drag your mouse across the photo diagonally towards the lower right hand corner of the photo.
While holding your mouse button down and dragging, observe the small Size box at the very bottom of your software screen towards the middle. It should look something like size: (???, ???). (the ??? marks will be numbers) The first number is the width of your current selection drag. The second number is the height of your current selection drag. Continue to adjust your drag until you achieve a size of (250, 250) pixels and release your mouse button. The height being the most important of the two measurements. Width may vary somewhat.
From the text menu at the top of the software screen choose Edit then Crop.
Your image should now be cropped to the proper dimensions.
From the text menu at the top of the software screen choose File then Save As.
A "Save As" window should now be displayed.
From the "Save As" choose the following:
Save as type: *JPG
Quality: 90
File name: enter a descriptive file name like "photo1-orig.jpg" and click on the [ Save ] button.
You have just saved the original minimally compressed file.
Please Note: Under no circumstances should any spaces be used in a filename. Use a dash instead.
From the text menu at the top of the software screen choose File then Close.
We have just closed the saved file. We will next reopen it to do some additional file compression.
From the text menu at the top of the software screen choose File then Open, and reopen the file we just saved with the minimal compression "photo1-orig.jpg".
From the text menu at the top of the software screen choose File then Save As.
A "Save As" window should now be displayed.
From the "Save As" choose the following:
Save as type: *JPG
Quality: 50
File name: enter a descriptive file name like "photo1-50.jpg" and click on the [ Save ] button.
You have just saved the file "photo1-50.jpg" which has been compressed with a quality of 50.
Close the file you just saved and then reopen it. Verify the visual quality of the photo. If no distortion is visible, Your Done! Your photo is now properly prepared and ready to be uploaded to your website.
If distortion is visible then simply follow steps 17 through 20. Each time increasing the Quality entry in the "Save as" by increments of 10 until and renaming the file accordingly. Continue this process until you achieve a file with no visible distortion.

To reduce the size of your photo even more, simply perform Steps 1 through 20 substituting maximum height of say 150 in place of 250 used in step #8 and substituting a crop of size of say: (150, 150) in place of the size: (250, 250) used in step #12.

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