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Participant
March 16, 2020
Question

Photoshop Save for Web Jpeg size

  • March 16, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 204 views

Can somebody shine some light for me on how PhotoShop JPEG Save For Web works?

Here is my problem:

  1. I start with original.bmp (32.1MB on hard disk).
  2. Then I run File | Save For Web... , using following options:
    1. Optimized (Checked)
    2. Embed Color Profile (Checked)
    3. Convert to sRGB (Checked)
    4. Quality = 60

What I get is original.jpg of 474KB.

Next I add white rectangle on top of the picture, increasing picture size by 200px.

This increases size of bmp to 33.7MB from 32.1MB. This makes sense to me as I have increased picture size by 200px. Here is how I did my math for sanity check:

Original picture dimensions: 4134x2717
Original picture pixels: 4134x2717=11,232,078

Increased picture dimensions: 4347x2717 (added 200px vertically - white rectangle)
Increased picture pixels: 4347x2717=11,810,799

11,232,078 / 11,810,799 = 0.95100069


This 5% increase matches the increase of size of bmp image on file system 32.1MB/33.7MB= 0.95252226

So far so, good and this makes sense.


The issue I have is when I try to "Save for Web" new bmp picture with increased dimensions (added white rectangle), I get 604KB jpeg picture. What I get is: 474/604=0.78 or roughly 22% picture increase.

Considering that I have added just white rectangle and jpeg format has compression, shouldn't I get 5% or less files size increase? Can some explain to me how this works or if I am doing something wrong?

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 16, 2020

I 2nd Derek's comments.  Legacy Save for Web is outdated and not even useful for web images anymore.  I stopped using it. 

 

When file size matters as it does on the web, reducing quality also reduces file size.  On images with sufficient total pixels, the reduced quality is not as noticeable as with low res-images.  So adjust accordingly.

 

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
Derek Cross
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 16, 2020

If you have an image that's around 4000px x 3000px, it's far too large for a website.

Save for web has been deprecated - use File > Export > Export As...