reduce 544Mb to 5Mb

[piixy]

HI, is this the right way to go about it without loosing much of sharpness and detail? I  need to resize a 544Mb file (that was originally  designed as Fine Art  for print with loads of details and no vectors) to only 5Mb

1- I decreased the width down by 50% while resampling ,  bringing it down to 136MB

2- I exported choosing web legacy , and dropped the width to almost 40% ending up with a 5MB jpeg .

Thanks!

[JJMack]

An image file that is 544MB in size is usually not a single layer like a Jpeg or PNG file.  It would most likely be a layers file like a PSD, PSB or Tiff file that may on may not have compress the pixel data.  The first thing you should do is with the document open in Photoshop save out a Jpeg image file in a folder using quality 10.  See how big that saved jpeg file is.  What do you need the smaller file for.  If the is for the Web  the  number  of Pixel you have for a print will be too many pixels for a display image.   A 4K display can only display an image 3840x2160px.   You need to know what web size image you need  or want.     Web Image are normally Jpeg or PNG images and are rarely large in file size.  If they are large its most likely not image data but Ancestor metadata  that is causing the large file size. Here are two 1K 1920x1024 Web images the black one is 72KB the noise one is 5MB in size.  I would consider these are large Web images 1920x1080 px.  Image with fine details  do not compress was well as  an image  with little to no detail.  72KB to 5MB quite a range for the same size images

[piixy]

Many thanks JJMAck for your quick reply:)!! You guessed right the file is a psd layered , which I flatened , and when I saved as jpeg 10 as u recommended , I ended up with a 106.3Mb file.

Sorry should have been more precise. The file was originally designed to be printed on fine art paper 300dpi 150x100cm . It's 8bits/chanel RGB mode

Later I wanted to participate in a billboard competition that requires a 5Mb max file with min width 1200pixels.

[D Fosse]

Here's my opinion about jpeg:

Anything above quality 8 is pointless. You still get the jpeg degradation, rendering the file useless for archival or critical purposes - but you don't take out the full potential for size reduction. Going from quality 10 down to 8 may reduce file size to half, without any immediate visual difference.

A jpeg at quality 8 will usually look perfectly fine, as long as that is the final state, not worked upon subsequently - and it is reproduced at intended size.

But again, jpegs should only ever exist as copies, never originals.

[piixy]

Tks D Fosse for your help:)!! You're right I saved it as jpeg 8 and size is down to 55.5Mb now, but remember the requirements for the billboard was 5Mb , I am just wondering if there is a way for me to shrink it down to that number while keeping it sharp and nice for a billboard print.

[JJMack]

Still 55.5MB for a jpeg file is huge IMO.   If hard for me to believe that is all Pixel data. What is the canvas size of your image how many pixel are in the width and height of your image.  I showed a quality 10 a 1K image size would range from 72KB to 5MB so a 4k Image 3840x2160px  would be from 288KB to 20MB you file is twice that size at quality 8.

[piixy]

Tsk JJMack! I  maybe I should have precised that the image is actually mostly hand painted with photoshop brushes and effects, it's not a photo I took with a camera.

The file is 17717 x10733 pixels  at 300 pixel/inch res

I used plenty of layers with loads of effects  and patterns from my library  created with adobe capture, I then flatened the image

and ended up with a 544Mb file.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Your file is physically huge - thats over 60 inches at hi res. You will need to either lower the image size or drop the resolution to even begin making a dent in the overall size. Doesn't matter how you created it.

[piixy]

You're right kstohlmeyer1 image quality is not the same but then on a billboard , maybe it's acceptable??

[JJMack]

A dpi of 100 for a 5'  print of a painting will be great.  There is less detail in a painting than a picture usually. It will be 1/9 the size if your image. A canvas this size filled with noise it would save as a jpeg 52MB at quality 10.

Found this on Google 6000x3600 save as 2.8MB at quality 10

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Compare a jpg at 8 setting compared to 12 and tell me you don't see detail loss. Compression vs quality is always a trade off. Try saving your jpg without color settings embedded (save for web with sRGB unchecked).

[D Fosse]

kstohlmeyer1  wrote

Try saving your jpg without color settings embedded (save for web with sRGB unchecked).

I wouldn't dream of it   3kB? Really?

Of course there is a difference between 8 and 12, but the file size is perhaps 1/6th! Isn't that the whole point of jpeg? You accept quality loss. That's the price - but there's no reason the colors shouldn't be accurate, at only 3kB extra file size.

My point is that if reducing file size is important, you may as well do it so it really makes a difference. And I still insist that 8 is almost always acceptable.

[Nancy OShea]

What finished dimensions must you submit?  You told us under 5 MB but what height, width and dpi are they asking for? 

[piixy]

Hi Nancy!he requirements were very vague, nothing abt resolutionor precise sizes  just 5Mb max size with min width 1200px

[rayek.elfin]

Agree with Nancy - all this talk about file sizes is pretty much useless without learning more about the requirements.

Could you provide us with a link to the billboard competition?

[rayek.elfin]

Found it!

Submit 2018 — The Billboard Creative

Within this context a typical 6x4 meters sized billboard at 30dpi would generally suffice. With larger billboards and increasing distances  the dpi of the print will be reduced further, i.e.: 5.4 by 14.6 meters a typical template would be 592x2052 pixels. You'd work at 300ppi at this resolution in Photoshop, and it would, when printed and put on the physical billboard, be a mere 8.7dpi at full size.

Photoshop can't handle the actual sizes, so you would have to work at a higher ppi, and later this is upscaled.

[Nancy OShea]

Well if that's the contest site, the deadline was yesterday .

• Deadline: Due to a technical glitch we have extended submission period to March 18, 2018. 
• Image format for submission: JPEG or JPG- File dimensions: 1200 pixels or greater on the longest side. Anything larger than 1200 px will be resized to fit the limitations. File size: under 5 MB

[piixy]

You’r right Rayek that’s the one:)!! As u can see the competition is over and i didn’t participate precisely bec i wasn’t sure how good or bad my photo will b on a billboard after compressing it to the max. But i Need to figure out how to do it for next time:)!

[Nancy OShea]

If you read their FAQ, you'll understand that submissions are not the final billboard size.

If you are a selected artist we will contact you about reformatting your file to fit on the specific billboard.

So keep your original PSD files. 

I would use the  crop tool to resize image to 1200px (longest side) and 150 dpi.

File > Export > Export As > JPG.   Note the file size is only 1.4 MB with Quality set at 100%.

Nancy

[piixy · Accepted solution]

TKX Nancy!!:) will keep that in mind and next time i’ll have to check the FAQ !

[rayek.elfin]

If I'd be designing for these billboard proportions, I'd be creating my artwork with the various aspect rations in mind so that the final art could be cropped to any of these billboard proportions and still look good. Create rectangles with the appropriate proportions relative to the actual sizes, and use those as a guideline.

PS generally you work at 1/12th the size of the original billboard, and at a minimum preferred resolution of 300ppi (which becomes 25ppi when upscaled at the actual billboard sizes). I'd work at 400ppi to have a bit of flexibility. Depending on the printer you can go as high as 600ppi at this stage. Don't go lower than 300ppi. For billboards with pockets you would add 6” of bleed on all sides, which comes down to 0.5” when working at 1/12th scale in Photoshop or any other design application. You would ADD this to the calculated base size of the billboard design.

Ideally you'd use vectors for text and other vector elements, and output to PDF for final printing. You would be outputting to CMYK, so test your colours for CMYK.

[piixy]

Many thanks rayek !!!:) now i know perfectly how ti go about it!

I will use the 600 dpi trick from now on it makes perfect sence.