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How do you reduce the size of a photo while keeping all the layers?

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
September 25, 2017
5 respuestas
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Photoshop 2015, PC, Windows 10. I am creating a montage 16"x20", to be printed. It has many layers which I want to keep as layers and the size is now 2GB, which is unworkable. How can I keep the layers while reducing the size? File>Export is grayed out. ALSO: how small can each layer/photo be and still show up after it's printed?

reduce_image_file_size

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Mejor respuesta de MichelBParis

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Emah+Duck wrote
Photoshop 2015, PC, Windows 10. I am creating a montage 16"x20", to be printed. It has many layers which I want to keep as layers and the size is now 2GB, which is unworkable. How can I keep the layers while reducing the size? File>Export is grayed out. ALSO: how small can each layer/photo be and still show up after it's printed?

What's different in Elements?

Since you are working with layers, that means you are already in 8-bits mode (Elements does not support 16-bits for layers).

- First, let's start with the final output. 16" x 20" means that you'll look at the poster from a distance, and 200 ppi is more than enough for fine details (3200 x 4000 pixels). And you don't resize the canvas, you resize the whole image (menu Image >> Resize >> Image size.)

- Your project seems to include more than a hundred layers, which take a lot of space, especially if the source of those portraits is made from full size photos. If you want to keep all layers (for moving, rotating or slightly resizing) you absolutely must simplify those 'smart layers' (you highlight them in the layers palette, right click and choose simplify). The change in kilobytes size is dramatic! You can select (highlight) many layers and simplify in a single click.

- For text layers, it's about the same: simplify if you have many text layers unless you want the ability to still edit the text.

- Another suggestion on the previous answers is still valid: use the tiff format with a compression option.

- Avoid textured or grainy backgrounds...

Tell us if your project becomes manageable

MichelBParisRespuesta

Legend

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Emah+Duck wrote
Photoshop 2015, PC, Windows 10. I am creating a montage 16"x20", to be printed. It has many layers which I want to keep as layers and the size is now 2GB, which is unworkable. How can I keep the layers while reducing the size? File>Export is grayed out. ALSO: how small can each layer/photo be and still show up after it's printed?

What's different in Elements?

Since you are working with layers, that means you are already in 8-bits mode (Elements does not support 16-bits for layers).

- First, let's start with the final output. 16" x 20" means that you'll look at the poster from a distance, and 200 ppi is more than enough for fine details (3200 x 4000 pixels). And you don't resize the canvas, you resize the whole image (menu Image >> Resize >> Image size.)

- Your project seems to include more than a hundred layers, which take a lot of space, especially if the source of those portraits is made from full size photos. If you want to keep all layers (for moving, rotating or slightly resizing) you absolutely must simplify those 'smart layers' (you highlight them in the layers palette, right click and choose simplify). The change in kilobytes size is dramatic! You can select (highlight) many layers and simplify in a single click.

- For text layers, it's about the same: simplify if you have many text layers unless you want the ability to still edit the text.

- Another suggestion on the previous answers is still valid: use the tiff format with a compression option.

- Avoid textured or grainy backgrounds...

Tell us if your project becomes manageable

E

Emah DuckAutor

Inspiring

Wow! I have just caught on that by accidentally posting my question in the wrong forum, I was getting answers that I could not understand! Things are beginning to make sense! Dave, thank you so much for figuring that out! Michael, I will get back to you as soon as I am able to try out your suggestions!

Derek Cross

Community Expert

Presumably you selected the resolution (for the size quoted) to be 300PPI, you could come down to 250PPI if that helps: 5000 x 4000px.

E

Emah DuckAutor

Inspiring

Do you agree that if I do this it will not change the size of the print?

D Fosse

Community Expert

16" x 20" doesn't mean anything in itself. Photoshop works with pixels only. You can set print size arbitrarily without altering the file content.

Open "Image Size" and tell us how many pixels width and height. That will indicate whether the file is unnecessarily big for any given output.

E

Emah DuckAutor

Inspiring

Thank you, everyone, for responding so quickly! Pixel size is 6,000 x 4,800.

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

Does the image contain Smart Objects?

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

the size is now 2GB, which is unworkable.

tif and psb can be more than 2 GB.

How can I keep the layers while reducing the size?

Remove unnecessary content, for example hidden layers, off-canvas elements, alpha channels, …

Also try tif with appropriate compression settings.

ALSO: how small can each layer/photo be and still show up after it's printed?

What does this mean?

Maybe you should provide more detail, screenshots, …

E

Emah DuckAutor

Inspiring

I don't think I have any hidden layers or smart objects. I don't know what alpha channels and off-canvas elements are. It looks like some of the photos will be 1/2 inch wide and some might be 2 inches, and I was wondering how low the resolution can go without losing quality. Here's a screenshot:

War Unicorn

Community Expert

Thank you. I have RGB color and nothing extends beyond the canvas because I'm leaving a border.

How much RAM (memory) do you have in your system?

If this is a 16-bit color document, Photoshop will eat your memory like it's candy. (e.g., a 16-bit document uses about twice the memory of an 8-bit document, sometimes more depending on image.) Compounding this is every layer added, whether it's a raster or Smart Object layer. You can cut down on memory usage by resizing the layers as you have but it looks like you have a lot of layers, though I've never really heard of users running into trouble with nothing but resized raster layers.

Photoshop CC is up to version 2017.1.1 now, which is a fair bit of versions above of version 2015. (About 6 or 7 versions if we include all the versions between 2015 and 2017.1.1.) Any reason why you haven't upgraded (or tried it out) yet?

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