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}

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Couple of issues.

You've removed the percentage slider and replaced it with 7 options that somebody thinks are more 'human readable'.

Seems more complex now [Excellent is less than Great???] and without the percentage slider and exported size you're giving me extra work as we need to deliver files under a specific size. 

Most exports we do use between 50 and 60%. Size optimization comes in this small band. If we have to drop below 60% we know image suffers - so try to drop in single percentage increments.  

Please give us back the slider.

(On another note. Two very large artboards just caused the Exports As... function to crash. I have reverted to 22.4 and turned off auto-update.)

[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!

[Barbara Ash]

Dan,

I agree, the elimination of JPEG quality percentage is quite an unwelcome surprise.

You can still export JPEG using percentages if you choose Export > Save for Web (legacy).

[elizabethk78962713]

What is going on over at Adobe? Is there a gas leak in the building or something? Why are we swapping out a numerical scale in Export As for an incorrect Likert scale? Y'all know you don't have to crank out updates when there's nothing to add or fix, right?

[Omar.Fathy]

I'm trying to get what you mean? Do you explain more 🙂 
Export as is better than before.

[TheDigitalDog]

This is a user to user support forum. To provide feedback and suggestions about what you desire from Adobe, you should go to this URL and comment after selecting the appropriate product line:
https://feedback.photoshop.com/categories/products/5f5f2090785c1f1e6cc40864

Now if you want help from other users, what is the issue? 

[Earth Oliver]

what i can't understand is why they didn't just borrow from Save for Web and include both a dropdown and number slider? 

[erdteil]

Adobe, you're not serious, are you? Where did the slider go in the latest version? Why those fuzzy and highly unprofessional categories to choose from?

{PS-71391}

[Ged_Traynor]

Hi

You're not really addressing Adobe here, this is a user to user forum, you can of course post on the Adobe Feedback Forum which is monitored by Adobe engineers

[Dan Rodney]

Yes, and you can also bring back the old Export As with percentage as follows:

1. Choose File > Export > Export Preferences.
2. Check on Use legacy "Export As"

But hopefully Adobe will remember this is a Pro app and give us our control back. If they also want to add a menu of choices (like in Save for Web) fine, but we need the ability to use percentages when exporting JPEG. Google ranks websites in part based on page speed, with images being a large part of that. Perctanges are vital for getting the smallest file size while maintaining quality.

[gener7]

Good/Very Good/Excellent/Great ... I feel like I'm grading papers for kindergarten. Thanks for the tip, Dan.

[D Fosse]

I agree, but mostly because it sounds silly. Topping "excellent" with "great"? Why not ..."fabulous"?

The compression algorithm always worked in discrete steps, so that, say, 59% would be the same as 65%, and then it would jump to the next step at, say, 68%. 

The question is how many steps. Photoshop's Save As traditionally had 12.

[D Fosse]

I took a look at Save As jpeg file sizes, at each quality setting. Here's a mid-size image that weighs in at 135 GB as 16 bit TIFF. Starting at 12 and ending at 0:

Standard      7.2M   3.7M   2.0M   1.5M   1.2M   1.0M   862K   727K   662K   618K   479K   422K   399K

Optimized   5.9M   3.1M   1.8M   1.2M   988K   760K   690K   560K   482K   431K   401K   337K   311K

Otimized crunches the color component an extra round (as I understand it).

So there's a lot to choose from, and you'd think weighing file size against quality was a core Export function. So why only 7 steps seems odd. Export does not even let you choose between standard and optimized (SFW does).

All that said, a little pragmatism goes a long way. I do manage a small website of my own (non-Adobe related), and I find that the main consideration in practice is sharpening. The sharper it is, the bigger it gets, and that can have more impact than the jpeg quality level. So finding the optimal sharpening is often the overriding concern, and if you ask me personally, 7 quality levels is quite enough.

[PECourtejoie]

Excellent work, one can also check http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/jpeg-quality on the same topic.

[gener7]

Dan's advice to checkmark  on Use legacy "Export As" actually got me out of a jam when the dialog blank-screened and refused to load. I went back to Preferences > Export and unchecked Legacy and got back a working Export dialog. Re-checking Legacy got the old dialog back minus the blank screen.

[defaultm1mgkz2sz638]

Please change Photoshop export setting back to what they were. The italic type is difficult to read for some with a reading/visual/learning disability (so not universally user friendly), and the image quality changing from percentage (which was much exact and more objective) to some subjective descriptions like Great and Very Poor. I think this part of the August 2021 update was a major fail.

[Efrain Quijada]

I agree, they dumbed down the export options. Lucky for us, they included a "use legacy export" option.

[J453]

Thanks for the feedback. It's something the team is considering bringing back.

[herlys0D4D]

Can the export file setting quality be restore to percentage slider?

[defaultm1mgkz2sz638]

Why is the font in italic? That style is extremely hard for people with reading/learning/visual disabilities to read, it blends into a blob.

[Efrain Quijada]

Yes, check "use legacy export" in preferences. See screenshot in post above.

[stephenc33028953]

I use Photoshop CC as a professional image editing tool. For my work, I need to export JPEG files that are as high quality as possible yet under 100K. The new changes to "Export as..." limit me to only seven natural-language options. If I wanted that, I'd be using a consumer-level software package. I need the kind of accuracy available with at least 100 levels of compression.

I enabled "Legacy export as" in Preferences > Export. Still, I worry that if it's already been depreciated to "Legacy" status, it's only a matter of time before it's completely discontinued. Photoshop has had 100 levels of compression on JPEG exports since it incorporated ImageReady more than two decades ago. Please don't kill that feature essential for many web developers, including myself.

Please re-enable the old Quality settings for JPEG files in Export as... as a default, and please don't limit this otherwise professional tool to only seven compression levels. 

[stephenc33028953]

That site is read-only now, and says to post on this site instead. 
https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/photoshop/community-consolidation-announcement/611d82e2...

[stephenc33028953]

That site is read-only now.

https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/photoshop/community-consolidation-announcement/611d82e2...

[J453]

Where are you seeing italic type? Can you post a screen shot of what you're seeing?