Exactly What Optimizations Does "Save for Web" Perform?

Hello all!
In Photoshop Elements 5.0, Save for Web works very well for me. I'll likely just use Save for Web most of the time, but occasionally I want to perform only some of the web optimizations on a particular image. I'd like to know how to perform some or all of the same optimizations manually.
Can anyone tell me what steps to take in the Editor (resizing, dpi changes, etc.) manually to mimic the Save for Web function? Or point me to some documentation that explains exactly what Save for Web does to an image?
- JTV

Here's the help section on the subject for E6...should be the same. It should be exactly the same in E5...actually probably no difference in any of the versions.
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/PhotoshopElements/6.0/help.html?content=WSCC0C7B37-3AD2-43ca-9 BF0-677BFC551D97.html
Here's a video on using Save for Web.
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/elements/tt/save-for-web.html
If you want to do resizing manually, Image<Resize<Image Size. Here you can set the image's size and resolution and set if you want the image to be resampled or not.
The compression would be done in the file<Save step.
If you save as a jpg, you can set image quality. Notice that below the preview check box the file size for the current setting is displayed. You can also do a visual check of the before and after image by checking and unchecking the Preview box.
Save As...for other file types display dialogs that apply to that image type.
Here's a link about using Image size dialog if you want to get into specifics and the math.
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/331/331327.html
There should also be an option in the Organizer for emailing images. Never used it myself by it's over there somewhere...

Similar Messages

Curious: How does "Save for Web" reduce the file size?

I do know HOW TO USE "Save for web" -- no questions there. I'm wanting to understand better what's going on under the hood.
When I start with say, an 8x10 JPG at 300 dpi, I understand completely how bringing that down to 72 dpi yields a much smaller file. Simple math.
What I don't understand is how the "Save for Web" function can reduce that smaller file size so drastically at the same dimensions, still 72dpi, with negligible image loss (at least at the 80% quality). Maybe it's just my amateur eyes, but for everyday casual web pages, I can discern no significant difference between the two 72dpi images. (At lower quality settings, I do see differences.)
Can anyone explain a bit more of HOW Photoshop does this? Is it simply compression? For example, is it -roughly- analogous to converting an AIF sound file as an MP3?
Thanks,
cb

Thanks, that worked. I figure there was a setting in there somewhere and was even in the right tab, but didnt think to click on that.

"The operation could not be completed" when doing Save for web

Hi
I have just installed Photoshop CS5.1 on my new iMac with Mac OS 10.7 (Lion). Everytime I try to do a 'Save for web' I get this error message "The operation could not be completed". After that Photoshop also hangs. I've tried many solutions offered in forums and the like, but nothing helps. I am getting quite desperate...Anybody?

I found out the following:
When I write in Terminal:
sudo chmod -R u+w ~/Library/Preferences
sudo chmod -R u+rw ~/Library/Application\ Support
The error message disappears, until I do a restart of the computer. Then the error is back.
My suspiscion is that the error came up after moving files from my old computer to my new one.
It happened even before I installed Lion...
So now I'm thinking of doing a complete new install on Lion, not an upgrade and then install Photoshop again. But I am not really looking forward to this :-(

White space around image when doing Save for Web

Say I draw a simple square in Illustrator CS6 then export it to a PNG using Save for Web. The preview shows 1px thick of white space on the right side. Sometimes it's on 2 sides or more.
No other hidden elements are around the image. Clip to artboard in not clicked.
Why does this happen and how do we get rid of it?

For once I get to answer a post and say somehting good about align to pixel grid.
Turn it on
Your image will now align to the pixel grid
Turn it off when not doing web work, or will drive you mad.

Illustrator CS2 "Save for Web" not functioning properly.

Illustrator CS2, OS X 10.4.11.
I am creating graphics for the Web with Illustrator CS2. When I go to Save for Web, the Save for Web window opens properly but the original graphics and type (even though the type is converted to outlines), become pixelated therefore my Web images are pixelated.
Attached is an example of a jpeg saved at maximum 100 quality.
I am not umderstanding why my originals become pixelated when doing Save for Web. It used to work until yesterday.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Can anyone help?
Much appreciated and thanks in advance.

Mom,
I figured there's nothing wrong with my native file as a co-worker did the same and Save for Web worked.So why is it that when I do Save for Web, the native file pixelates when previewing the "original"?
That's what I can't figure out. One minute it worked fine, the next... bang!
That, and gprobst also being save correctly, imply that there is something wrong with your preferences.
No time to wait for the server. Here is an extract of the most important part:
THE CURE:
Up to Illustrator 10, almost all the preference settings were included in the aiprefs file, and almost all issues with corrupted settings could be solved by deleting or moving it; in some rare cases, moving or deleting the folder holding the settings was required.
From Illustrator CS on, the preference settings have been spread over a number of files/subfolders so in many cases deleting the aiprefs file is not enough: the easy solution is to move the whole folder rather than trying to figure out which file(s) may be corrupted; just deleting the folder without moving it first has proved fruitless in some cases.
Therefore, the cure all consists of the following steps:
1. Close Illustrator.
2. Make a Windows search including hidden files and folders and including subfolders for the folder holding the preference files; the name of the folder depends on the Illustrator version, and the position of the folder depends on the OS version. There is one folder for each version and for each user so it is important to find the relevant one.
Up to version 10, the name of the folder is Adobe Illustrator [X],
From version CS on, the name of the folder is Adobe Illustrator [X] Settings.
[X] is the version number; as standalone versions, CS (Creative Suite) is called 11, CS2 is called 12, and CS3 is called 13, but the version numbers with CS are used in the folder name.
3. Either:
a) Create a subfolder and move all the contents into it; or
b) Move the whole folder to the Desktop.
With both you may recover the contents of the folder by moving it back if the issue is not solved and get your preference settings back.
a) requires creation of the subfolder, but it makes recovery easier, especially if you create a shortcut to the preference settings folder, and you can skip the search if/when corruption occurs again.
You may delete the folder/contents subsequently.
4. If you have Windows Vista, restart Windows. If not, continue to 5 without delay.
5. Restart Illustrator, and see whether the issue is solved.

'Save for Web' action does not set transparency for gifs ??!?

I recorded an action that just performs a 'Save for Web' while setting the white background to transparent.
The action does not save/preserve the transparency, in any mode I run it (i.e. Destination None | Save&close | folder).
Is this a known bug ?!? the same exact 'Save for Web' procedure do create a transparent background when performed interactively.
Thanks, ciao

Same issue. Hoping someone responds to this thread soon

I am using photoshop cc 2014.2 And when I use save for Web it gives me a dialog box that says it is using Latin characters I've never seen this before. Does anyone have an answer for this problem or do I need to go back to the older version of Photoshop.

I'm using Photoshop cc 2014.21 I you save for Web and dialog box comes up that says that Photoshop is using Latin characters and that servers cannot recognize Latin characters in webpages and you may have trouble viewing these pages does anyone have an answer for this problem?

What Firefox version is currently installed on the computer?
You can find the full version of the current current Firefox release (37.0.2) in all languages and all operating systems here:
*https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/
If you have a very old Firefox version then you could consider to uninstall that version to clean up existing registry keys (especial the uninstall key).
Make sure NOT to remove "personal data" when you uninstall Firefox, because that will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including data in profiles created by other Firefox versions.
Check the Firefox program folder and remove the Firefox program folder if there are still files left in it.
*(32 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
*(64 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"
It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox
Your bookmarks and other personal data are stored in the Firefox profile folder and won't be affected by an uninstall and (re)install, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall

When I save for web and device in Illustrator, I see all the pixels... What is wrong?

I have created a vector image. When I save for web and device in Illustrator, the image does not come out clear even if I'm saving the image the same size as the artboard. I can see the coutours (pixels)... I've opened the file on another computer and everything is perfect. What is wrong on my computer?
I have reinstalled the program and did all the updates. What else can I try?
Thank you!

So that you know next time that option is no longer available so to speack it is now under a dropdown wiht the default none then Type Optimized or Art Optimized in CS 5 and operhaps CS 4 as well

Photoshop crashes when I try and save for web and devices. Making the image size smaller does not help.

I'm trying to make a lopping .gif from an animation that I made. It's 147 total frames. It's crashed about 6 times now every time I either try and Save for Web or even just save the document on my desktop so in case it crashes I can reopen PS and recover it. Making the image size smaller (original size is 1920 x 1080 with resolution 72) does not help, it still makes the *ding* error when I attempt to save. I made the image more than half of the original size and the Save for Web box actually came up that time, but when I tried clicking save it said there was an error and PS crashed without warning.

Look at the crash report for your Photoshop crashes see what they show

Why does the Fireworks save for web function give better results than in Photoshop?

Having used the trial version of Fireworks, I have noticed that the save for web function gives greater compression and image quality than saving for web in Photoshop. Why is this?
As Adobe are not continuing in developing Fireworks, does anyone know if will they will improve the save for web function in Photoshop to match the Fireworks version?
Are there any third party companies who anyone can recommend who will process large volumes of images for web?
Thanks

One of my favourite topics ;-P
First, the save for web function in Photoshop has not seen any real updates in a long time. In Fireworks PNG export allows for fully transparent optimized files with indexed 256 or less colours, which is impossible in the save for web function in Photohop. It is unsupported.
This is one of the reasons why Fireworks does a much better job than Photoshop. Another reason is that Photoshop adds meta junk in its exported files, and this also increases the file size (and should be removed, because there are also a number of fields which include information about your setup).
One other caveat is that Photoshop's save for web functions neither allows for a choice in chroma subsampling, and instead decides automatically below a certain quality threshold to degrade the colour sharpness quality. The user has no control over this. (Fireworks also limits the user this way.)
One thing to be careful of: FW's jpg quality setting, and PS's quality settings are very different - a 50 in Photoshop is not the same 50 setting in Fireworks.
For jpg optimization I generally use RIOT (free): http://luci.criosweb.ro/riot/
(When you install, be careful NOT to install the extra junkware!)
Fireworks cannot change the chroma subsampling to 4:2:0, which does degrade the quality a bit compared to RIOT and Photoshop in my experience. Photoshop adds useless meta information, even if the user tells it not to do that. RIOT allows you to remove that information, saving 6k. RIOT also offers an automatic mode that optimizes existing jpg images without degrading the quality further, and often saves 10k or more, depending on the images.
Interestingly enough, in my tests exported Fireworks jpg images are always reduced in file size by RIOT, due to FW's jpg export limitations, without any image degradation.
In my tests FW's jpg quality versus file size turns out to be the worst of all three. RIOT generally wins, or is at least on par with Photoshop.
As for PNG export, Photoshop's save for web function is quite abysmal. No 256 colour full transparency export is possible, while Fireworks does support this.
Having said that, there is a free alternative that leaves both Photoshop AND Fireworks in the dust: Color Quantizer. http://x128.ho.ua/color-quantizer.html
CQ is an amazing little tool: with it anyone can create PNG files with full transparency and reduced to ANY number of colours! It means that a 512 colour PNG with full transparency is now very easy to do. On top of that, for more difficult images a simple quality mask brush tool allows the user to control and retain even small colour details in a PNG, while reducing the file size to an absolute minimum.
CQ is one of the best kept secrets of a Web Developer's toolkit. And it is free!
Both RIOT and Color Quantizer have a built-in batch mode. Both are available for WIndows. Not for Mac. If you are on a Mac, try imageOptim. Not nearly as good as RIOT and CQ, but quite passable.
PS to be fair, the newest versions of Photoshop do allow for export of 8bit PNGs with full transparency through the use of its Generator functionality. But again, it cannot compete with CQ. And as far as I am aware, Generator cannot be used in Photoshop's batch processing (which, btw, is very slow! For simpler daily image processing tasks I have to do in batches, I prefer IrfanView, which is lightning fast! IrfanView).

PS Save For Web -- what are optimum GIF settings?

Hi,
I am making very simple buttons for a web page navigation bar as follows:
Create new file in sRGB with proper dimensions for my navigation area.
Fill with web page background color, #c4c0b4.
Use Type Tool to create text in gray #666666. (After creating these buttons, I change the text color to white for hover buttons.)
Use Guides and Slice Tool to define shape of each button.
Save For Web to create folder with all the buttons.
In the Save For Web dialog I have tried several of the GIF presets -- 128, 64, 32, with dithering and without dithering. They all look good, but I'm not sure which will give me that absolute highest quality, sharpest looking characters.
QUESTIONS:
1) Which of the GIF presets should I use for the best text appearance? I have read the Help file and it would seem that I do not need dithering since I am using two solid colors -- #c4c0b4 and either #666666 or white. To dither or not to dither, that is the question!
2) Do I need more than 32 colors?
3) In Save For Web, when I click Save and the Save Optimized As dialog opens, should I use the Default Settings under Settings, or would a custom setting be preferable?
4) Am I correct that I should NOT apply any sharpening to text-only files such as this?
As always, thanks to the pros here for any advice on this.
John

Hi Jesse,
I tried using text links and setting the size in pixels, but the sizing changed depending on the browser settings. Sizing in pixels is better than in points or generic sizes, but still subject to changes. I'm on a PC and my designer-friend who is helping me with this is on a Mac. We've done some tests and anything other than making the links with images is not consistent from browser to browser, Mac to PC. We want to guarantee that all the text on the page will not change -- size, spacing, leading, etc. My clients are graphic designers and art directors who will notice this kind of thing.
As for the client changing, adding or subtracting links... well, I'm the client and I'm doing the site myself, so that's not going to be an issue. In addition, as you see, the site is super-simple so there aren't likely to be a whole lot of major changes. That's not to say it could not happen, but saving all my Photoshop work files is not a problem.
Please understand, I am not arguing with you or Nancy. If I were doing a complicated corporate or business site, I would use text links for all the reasons you lay out... no question about that.
Thank you for the tips on saving GIFs. I'm using Photoshop CS4 and Save For Web. I think I now understand what settings to use. I am using GIFs only for the text. All of the images will be JPGs, but those are all generated automatically by Lightroom and a web gallery plug-in called SlideShowPro which not only generates the images but assembles the galleries and does all the Flash stuff. All I do is embed the Flash galleries into my pages. For a non-web person like me, that's nothing short of a miracle.
Your comments were not long-winded. In fact, I'm so eager to learn more about this stuff that I really appreciate your detailed explanations. Thanks for the comment about my work -- I'm excited about this new website which hopefully will make it look better than ever!
Best,
John

CS5.5 Photoshop Save For Web Error - "cannot be performed on a file with a user-mapped section open"

I have just started getting this error when I try to "Save for web". I can still do File > Save As... with no problem. Does anybody know what might be causing this?

Hi jonesri,
I think you can try to use SSAS Dynamic Management View to monitor SSAS instance, such as existing connections and sessions. For example, please run the following MDX query:
SELECT[SESSION_COMMAND_COUNT],
[SESSION_CONNECTION_ID],
[SESSION_CPU_TIME_MS],
[SESSION_CURRENT_DATABASE],
[SESSION_ELAPSED_TIME_MS],
[SESSION_ID],
[SESSION_IDLE_TIME_MS],
[SESSION_LAST_COMMAND],
[SESSION_LAST_COMMAND_CPU_TIME_MS],
[SESSION_LAST_COMMAND_ELAPSED_TIME_MS],
[SESSION_LAST_COMMAND_END_TIME],
[SESSION_LAST_COMMAND_START_TIME],
[SESSION_PROPERTIES],[SESSION_READ_KB],
[SESSION_READS],[SESSION_SPID],
[SESSION_START_TIME],[SESSION_STATUS],
[SESSION_USED_MEMORY],
[SESSION_USER_NAME],
[SESSION_WRITE_KB],
[SESSION_WRITES]
FROM $SYSTEM.DISCOVER_SESSIONS
Use Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) to Monitor Analysis Services:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh230820.aspx
In addition, you can aslo use SQL Profiler to capture some events for further investigation.
Use SQL Server Profiler to Monitor Analysis Services:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174946.aspx
If you have any feedback on our support, please click
here.
Regards,
Regards,
Elvis Long
TechNet Community Support

VERY slow performance with CS4 + Save for web

Note: I have done a search for similar issues but can find nothing regarding CS4 and this particular issue. I'm using a MacBook Pro 2.4Ghz w/4GB of RAM and resources are aplenty when the issue occurs.
Issue
My problem is that under certain circumstances the 'save as web' function can take upto 3 minutes before the diaglog box appears. I've had this for some time but only in the last couple of days did I notice something that might be relevant:
Works
1. Open 3 large TIFF files @ 120mb approx (mine are 3 processed RAW files from Capture One / 4200x5600@300dpi)
2. Create a new adjustment layer for each image
3. Resize each image to 72dpi @ 800x600
4. Run a SmartSharpen & flatten layers
5. In each tab (for each image) do 'save as web'
6. 'Save as web' dialog appears in expected time
VERY slow
1. Open 3 large TIFF files @ 120mb approx (mine are 3 processed RAW files from Capture One / 4200x5600@300dpi)
2. Create a new adjustment layer for each image
3. Resize each image to 72dpi @ 800x600
4. Run a SmartSharpen & flatten layers for each image
5. In first tab do 'save as web'
6. 'Save as web' dialog appears in expected time
7. Close this document (tab)
8. Go to the next image (tab) and do 'save as web'
9. Dialog box can take anything from 20secs to 3mins to appear.
10. Close this document (tab)
11. Go to the last image (tab) and do 'save as web'
12. Dialog box can take anything from 20secs to 3mins to appear.
As I can easily go through this process for 50-60 images you can imagine that it can waste over an hour of my time waiting for Photoshop to get it's act together. I assume it's something todo with memory allocation, or that it's processing previews for all three tabs on the first 'save as web', but in any respect it's very annoying. There seems nothing obviously wrong resource-wise at the time of doing these.
Would be interested if anyone else has this issue!
Thanks!

I had the same problem when I setup a new computer this week. Here's what I had installed:
Photoshop CS5
Suitcase Fusion 3
The problem was that when I was in Photoshop and used the "Save for Web" export screen, the dropdown menu for the different export types (JPG, PNG, GIF, etc) would take an extremely long time to update the preview of the graphic.
After a few days of research , I found that Suitcase was conflicting with Photoshop. Here's how you fix the problem (or at least here's what I did with my situation):
Open Suitcase
Go to "Tools", click "Manage Plugins"
Deactivate the Photoshop plugin
This fixed the problem immediately and now my Photoshop" Save For Web" feature is working really fast. Hope this helps anyone else in the same boat.

Script to "Optimize to file size" (automatically) in "Save for Web"?

Hello, all,
I'm a novice when it comes to scripts in Photoshop, but I'm really coming to the conclusion that this is the only way to automate the actions I need to do, whithout having to do it one-by-one.
Is it possible to write a Script to automatically choose the option (and settings) to "Optimize to file size" in the "Save for Web" dialog?
Is it also possible to save the file in the document's original folder, instead of a single specific folder, using "Save for Web"?
I have a really big number of different files (some .JPEG, some .PNG, some .TIFF) and I need to generate a single "reference.jpg" in each one of those original folders. It's quite easy to use whatever method to separate all those files in some lists and later open them in Photoshop in small subgroups of files.
I only have a restriction of size (60Kb) for those "reference.jpg" files, and I would like to save all of them, in each document original folder, with the best possible quality within that size constraint.
Here's my problem:
I can easily do that with a very simple action, but, that specific way, I have no control whatsoever over the resulting filesize of those "reference.jpg" files generated. Moreover, I also find the "save for web" command create a more "slim" file, allowing for better quality within my size constraint.

c.pfaffenbichler wrote:
"I can’t make that out in the ScriptingListener code, but maybe someone else knows better or has a Script for the task already.
I seem to remember a thread where it was discussed to save a copy, check its size and overwrite it with different settings if it was too big … that should be possible, but may run longer."
Many, many thanks for your reply, c.pfaffenbichler! I spend the whole day (and night) yesterday learning (or rather trying to learn) about javascript, OOP, and how it should be applied in Photoshop's Scripts.
I was able to modify some snippets of code I found on the web to suit my needs (temporarily):
//SaveforWebSP.jsx
//Save a fixed width image with a size constraint in its original folder
var docRef = activeDocument;
var outputFolder = docRef.path;
NamesaveRef = new File( outputFolder + "/reference.jpg" );
var NewfileRef = new File( NamesaveRef )
// quality/size constraints
var w = 300; // new file width
var MaxSz = 61440; // max. 60Kb
var Qlt = 100; // initial quality 100
var x = 1; // decreasing step
// resize the image to the right width
docRef.resizeImage(UnitValue(w,"px"),null,100,ResampleMethod.BICUBICSHARPER);
// Perform the first SaveForWeb Operation
ExpWeb(NewfileRef, Qlt);
// Keep trying to save the file with max. Qlt, but under MaxSz
while (NewfileRef.length > MaxSz)
      Qlt = Qlt - x;
      NewfileRef = new File( NewfileRef );
      NewfileRef.remove();
      ExpWeb(NewfileRef, Qlt); // Perform a new SaveForWeb Operation, with slightly lower Qlt
         if (Qlt <= 50) {
           alert("The file can't be saved with the desired size AND quality.");
           break // break the loop whenever the quality is as low as 50 (this shouldn't need to happen)
var FileSz = NewfileRef.length/1024;
FileSz = Math.round(FileSz);
// close the original file without saving
activeDocument.close(SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES);
// SaveForWeb Export, with the desired constraints and parameters
function ExpWeb(FileNm, Qlt)
      var options = new ExportOptionsSaveForWeb();
      options.quality = Qlt;   // Start with highest quality (biggest file).
      options.format = SaveDocumentType.JPEG;   // Save Format for the file
      docRef.exportDocument(File(FileNm), ExportType.SAVEFORWEB, options);
This works, but it takes a long time and keep the HD disk "going crazy" during the time it is processing the images.
This is too bad, because the "Optimize to file size" dialog in the "Save for Web" would have been so much faster, efficient and much less "disk-intensive"...

Save for Web does not remember quality settings

Hello,
I just about PSE8 today and Im on a mac with Leopard.
PSE does not remember the quality settings when "save for web".
The quality is 0 every time Im saving. Even if I change to 100 it does not remember it.
Can you help please? Im far from being an expert here.

function(){return A.apply(null,[this].concat($A(arguments)))}
However in my library-folder/preferences folder I found 5 folders or files which are connected to adobe.
"write and read" is activated on all and Im the main user on this mac.
There is even one file called "Adobe PSE für Web speichern 6.0 Vor" so pretty much like "save for web". On this one I can write and read as well.
On Windows, there is a preferences file that is stored in the proper location for such files:
C:\Users\Ellis\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Save For Web PSE\4.0\Adobe Save For Web PSE 4.0 Prefs
PSE has no problem writing that file. This sounds similar to the file you found.
However, there is another file that Save For Web tries to write:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 6.0\Settings\Recently Used Optimizations.irs
It is this file that is located improperly, in Program Files, which is supposed to be only for read-only executables (.exe), dynamic link libraries (.dll), and other read-only assets live. Programs normally don't have write permissions for these folders, so Save For Web fails to save its preferences. Perhaps there is something similar on the Mac. (I'm not an OS X expert, so I can't help with the Mac conventions of where things are kept.)

Exactly What Optimizations Does "Save for Web" Perform?

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