P: Bring back JPEG quality percentage to Export As dialog

[Dan Rodney]

I updated to Photoshop version 22.5.0 and just noticed that File > Export > Export As has a majorly dumbed down JPEG quality menu. Photoshop is for professionals. Having accurate control over quality is import for optimizing to a small file size. Giving a few choices (and not even telling us what quality they are) is not acceptable for a pro app. I know for now I can go into prefs and use the legacy version, but please bring back the quality percentage!

I also posted this on the Photoshop Feedback website which I think is a more appropriate place to discuss this, but wanted to see what other people think. It's probably best to comment there so Adobe knows. Photoshop Feedback: Bring back JPEG quality percentage to Export As dialog 

{Moderator edited title - PS-71391}

[rimcorp]

the "Export AS" is useless in a real studio eviroment. Bring back "Save AS"!!! with size adjustment.

thanks

[D Fosse]

I need the kind of accuracy available with at least 100 levels of compression.

By @stephenc33028953

You never had that. It always worked in increments, so the 0-100 scale was basically misleading. You had 12 or 13 discrete levels (can't recall which). You can check this for yourself by checking the resulting file sizes.

It should also be remembered that sharpening has a big impact on jpeg file size, often bigger than going between the 7 current steps.

All that said, I don't like the current scale either, and I hope they revert this.

[D Fosse]

You can still do that.

File formats that don't support all the properties of the file have now been moved to Save A Copy. This will most often apply to jpeg, which doesn't support layers, alpha channels or 16 bit depth.

You can, however, revert to the old behavior in Preferences > File Handling.

[igors58105921]

Please bring the slider back as default!

[sideaita]

Thank you! We thought we had to wait for another update or go back to an older version.

[jonathan8_8]

I can confirm that changing the individual quality percentages definitely makes a change in the file size PER percent (not in increments of 12).

It would be great to get the "optimize to file size" option from the save for web dialog integrated into the "export as" dialog. (or conversely, allow artboards in the save for web dialog)

[jonathan8_8]

I don't see italic, but the fonts do appear thinner/more aliased than the legacy panel

[D Fosse]

What can I say? You're right and I was wrong. And here I always thought it worked the same way as Photoshop and Lightroom. I haven't been paying attention.

Well, anyway, all the more reason to revert to the old scale.

[D Fosse]

I had an epiphany yesterday (actually someone told me), and I need to backtrack on this one.

It turns out that the old Export and Save For Web actually did work down to percentage numbers. There were no steps. 87% was different than 88% and the file sizes ditto. You could fine-tune down to a single percentage number.

Or you still can, if you use Legacy Export or Save For Web.

How I managed to miss that for all this time I don't know. It's very well published that Lightroom works in increments, despite a continuous scale, so I suppose I just short-circuited. And of course Photoshop has the 0-12 scale.

Anyway, we can't let incorrect information stand. Mea culpa.

[ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΑ5E8A]

Hello,

can you please help me? 60% quality to what description now it corresponds? Good/Very Good/Excellent/Great ?

[D Fosse]

How I managed to miss that for all this time I don't know. It's very well published that Lightroom works in increments, despite a continuous scale, so I suppose I just short-circuited. And of course Photoshop has the 0-12 scale.

Anyway, we can't let incorrect information stand. Mea culpa.

[MisterExt]

They should simply have a toggle switch in the new export to choose whether you want to use percentage or their presets.

One good thing about the "new" export window is it loads the image/preview faster. Maybe they coded it with those break points for a performance boost as the old export window has some lag.

Considering this is a professional tool though, and Photoshop has always given us the freedom to choose percentage, it would make way more sense to have both in one window—a percentage slider (not in a menu like the old export, which is just goofy and slow) with a one-click text field to change the percentage and up/down arrows (besides the functionality of using the arrow keys + modifiers), and optional presets that we could set, modify and name. The bottom left of the window is full of dead space anyway. The problem with jpg presets is every imaeg is different, which is why granular control has always been necessary.

If they actually apply themselves, each section of the export could be dragged and dropped anywhere in the UI with additional modules. Other graphics software has been doing this for over a decade.

[grega93142763]

I agree Dan, I'm a graphics/ web developer and the loss of percentage quality results in unsastifactory image file sizes. It was actually a key feature why I use PS for webpage image editing especially to calibrate image quality against page download speeds. Not really what you would expect from a professional editing app. Even the wording and limited degree of choices is somewhat infantile. Not happy.   

[Diego.capturemedia]

I also agree! Adobe please bring back the JPEG quality percentage! As Dan said, Photoshop is for pros and the interface doesn't need to be customized for normal users. 

[davescm]

Jeffrey - thanks that's good to hear.

I was concerned that the next step would be to replace 0-100% Opacity settings for layers with Solid, Foggy, Murky, Misty, Clear  🙂

Dave

[J453]

Thanks for the feedback. The team is looking at adding back this functionality. Be sure to hit the Upvote button.

As a workaround, you can enable Use legacy "Export As" under Preferences > Export

Note, this option is not available on Windows ARM and Apple M1 devices.

[Ciara5E87]

I often export graphics for web and social media. Adjusting the percentage of quality was the best way to get the file sizes to a perfect size. We need under 200kb for social and web and sometimes I can't get the right sizing because the options have been changed in the latest Photoshop update. Please bring it back!

[Ged_Traynor]

Hi

You can revert to the legacy Export As in preferences

[drewm61419899]

I get so tired of these major changes that seem to have no user research applied before rolling out. Labeling export quality as "poor" entirely misrepresents how it's used when optimizing images for the web. Now I have clients saying "I don't want a poor quality image" and exporting at far higher values than they need that ONLY SLOW DOWN THEIR PAGE LOAD SPEEDS. Thanks for making the internet worse Adobe. 

[Arel]

Go to Photoshop Preferences > Export. Check the box to use the Legacy export dialog (bottom center of the dialog panel). Screenshot attached. This brought back the precise export for me; Mac OS and PS 2021.

[Sarah Beth Montes]

Updated to 22.5.0 iteration and seems the program underwent some updates in the JPG file export settings. Eliminating the slider option to adjust file quality to a dropdown of "Very Poor, Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good, Excellent, Great" may work for some users but is quite clunky for others. I would suggest leaving an option under photoshop preferences for users to change back to the slider feature if they so desire. If this is not possible, at the very least the category "Excellent" should be considered the highest image quality, not "Great". 

[ericc19576445]

Just a heads up, in the English language, "excellent" is better than "great", but your sort order for qualities ranks great higher. The new export quality was very poorly designed and is unnecessarily confusing. This is very bad UX .

[counteragent]

This is Absurd, every-time I update Photoshop and Illustrator, Adobe changes MY settings and makes me jump through hoops to do do the same workflow. Updates like “ Good “ for JPEG is NOT helpful. It looks like they are just doing “busy work programming”.

[rimcorp]

Seems like 'Updates" are being designed by code monkeys who never worked in a real design production environment . . ."Say, wouldn't it be cool if we . . ."

[Sean Davitt]

Agreee not very usefull these flowery words, i spend most of my day trying to optimise images fro web and I always want to get as close to the max file weight as I can. Thanks for the tip "go into prefs and use the legacy version" thats fixed it for now.

Cheers Sean in lockdown Sydney