.gif preview slow in Save for Web

I am having an issue in Save for Web where the .gif animation preview works very slow and choppy. I am an advertising designer and many times I need to work on animated .gif banners. I am working with Photoshop CS6. When I play the animation in the frame timeline the animation speed works as intended, a little choppy but the timing isn't too bad. However when I go into the Save for Web screen and play the animation it always appears a lot slower and looks choppy. Anything se to 0.0 or No Delay runs as if its set to .1 seconds. Now if I export the file and open it in Chrome the animation speed seems to go back to normal. This wasn't always the case, I tested this 2 or 3 months ago and the animation speed in the export was also slow and choppy but it must have been fixed in one of the updates since then.
My issue is I don't want to have to preview everything in Chrome after I export it, and then possibly have to go back and tweak it then save again, preview again etc. I have never encountered this issue in previous versions on Photoshop or other machines. Ususally my experience has been the opposite, the frame timeline has always been slower, but previewing in Save fro Web has shown a pretty accurate preview.
I also have a HP laptop running Windows 7, photoshop CS6 and I don't encounter this issue at all. It seems that everyones default answer on all of the forums is "different browsers handle .gif animation speeds differently, etc.." but int he past I have saved a .gif on my mac and it was slow and choppy in the Chrome, then I saved the same file on my PC transfered it back to the mac and previewed in Chrome and the animation played quickly and smoothly.
I can't see it being a hardware issue because the machine I am using is farily new. iMac Late 2013/2013, 3.4 Ghz Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 1024 MB, running OSX 10.8.4 Mountain Lion.
Could it possibly be a setting or preference that needs to be changed? As I stated above it seems that now when I export the animation works fine in the browser the preview is just slow, but I have read that many people are having this issue so hopedully someone will have a solution.

I don't use a Mac but the first the first thing I do when I have performance problems with Photoshop on my PC is to do some house cleaning. I reset my Photoshop Preference to a saved copy I made when Photoshop was working well. I Also clean my disk up clearing caches and temp files so the plenty of scratch space. I close all applications and look at the machine CPU utilization. Then try Photoshop to see if it is back to its normal performance.

Similar Messages

Preview options in the "save for web" dialog

According to the reference, the previews in the "save for web" dialog are there only for showing how the image can be seen on various platforms with different gamma values.
But, if we open a non-sRGB image (ProPhoto for example) by the "save for web" option, the preview options (other than the "use document profile) in the "save for web" dialog assign sRGB color space to the image even when the "convert to sRGB" option is unchecked ... this causes unrealistic, dull previews for the image.
What is the reason behind that PS assigns sRGB to the image previews if we uncheck "convert to sRGB" option?

Basically, how animation works with GIF and Save for Web in PSE is that each layer in your document is a frame of animation. So you see one layer, then the next, and so on. You should not see the contents of the last frame/layer when looking at the current/next frame of the animation.
Could you post a screen shot of your layers panel and give us a link to the GIF that is coming out of Save for Web?

Huge file size with Save for Web but preview is ok

Hi,
I have googled but not found anything about this but I have the same problem on my computer and also on a colleagues computer so it seems it should not be totally unknown.
This is what i do
1 Open a eps file, one color logo, 72dpi, size it to 110x21
2 save for web
3 select png-24 format. preview says file size ~1.3 kB
4 save -> actual file size on disk is 4 kB (ie 3 times bigger file size than it should be)
5 Preview and then right click in browser + save image as gives correct file size (on my colleagues computer this does not work, he always gets the wrong size)
I have also tried with gif and various settings, image sizes etc and the result is the same.
I'm using Windows Vista 32-bit and Photoshop CS4.
Is this a known problem?
Thanks

Thanks for your reply but i don't think that's it. When I check properties on the file in Windows it tells both "Size" and "Size on disk", where the latter is actual size on disk (depending on cluster size) but the size I am talking about is the first one.
Also just to be clear, when I say Preview, I mean clicking the Preview button that opens the file in a browser window. Not the preview within the Save for Web and Devices dialog. So I think this file is correctly created and *should* be the same as if I click Save (but it obviously isn't)
This sounds very much like a bug to me, anyone else who have seen this or can recreate?
Thanks

Gif becomes grainy/pixelated in 'Save For Web'

Hello! I recently switched laptops and I have been having major issues trying to regain the quality gifs I used to make. After I have my gif set to go, I go to save it in 'Save For Web'. This is where all of my problems start. My gif no longer looks smooth, but the entire thing has a grainy or pixelated look -- and it doesn't change no matter how I fiddle with my settings. When switching from the 'original' to the 'optimized' tab in the save for web page, you can obviously see a loss of quality. It may be slight, but it makes a huge difference to me.
Here's a side by side reference:
Not sure if it will help, but here are my settings when saving (I have changed from 'pattern' to 'diffusion' and nothing changes):
Thank you for any help you can provide!

First, JJMack is correct: lots of colours (around 32100) in this example do make it harder to convert without grain.
Second, the quality of the GIFs you produced in Save for Web (SfW) prior to the purchase of the new laptop were never any "better" - it merely means that the previous screen was unable to display the results at a decent enough quality to actually discern the differences between the original and the GIF version with reduced colours. Screen quality does matter.
Second, Photoshop's Save for Web colour reduction algorithms are quite old-fashioned, and (far) better methods are available. Not in Photoshop, however. For a good conversion you will have to look elsewhere.
Here is the original version @2x zoom (32101 colours):
Photoshop's version. The best visual quality I could achieve in SfW (diffusion dither at 81%, perceptual). Obvious banding issues, and a very grainy result.
Next up: RIOT (Radical Image Optimization Tool). RIOT features a newer "NeuQuant neural-net" colour quantization algorithm. Notice how the gradients are quite nicely retained, although here and there some issues pop up (lips/makeup, building, arm highlight, and greenery are missing colour). Overall, though, the final result is much less grainy looking than Photoshop's effort. At the expense of smaller areas with unique colours.
Next, let's try Color Quantizer with standard settings, a two factor gradient priority, and 256 colours. Dithering was set to Shiau-Fan @75%. Slight banding in the lighter areas of the background, and the building and lips are again missing colours from the original. Much less grainy than Photoshop's version.
Colour Quantizer features a quality mask brush, which allows us to safeguard smaller areas with unique colours from colour degradation. I painted a mask for the lips, the building and greenery in the background, the skin of the woman on the right in the background, the lighter area around the vent, and the forehead to preserve those areas' quality as much as possible.
I feel this result speaks for itself. There is slight banding visible in the lighter area of the wall on the right, but still much less pronounced compared to SfW's version. The colours are all there, especially the important ones for the makeup and the smooth facial tones of Kate. The shoulder's highlight is also preserved nicely. Even the woman on the right in the background looks spot on (which was yet another sore point in SfW's version).
Arguably the best version. Far superior to Photoshop's failed effort.
Fourth, if you are still using GIF to optimize still images: STOP NOW. GIF is terrible in comparison to properly optimized and compressed PNG files. Only use GIF when small animated movies are your goal.
Here is a 512 colour version produced in Color Quantizer (Photoshop's SfW function lets us down once more, unfortunately: there is no option to reduce an image to 512 colours for PNG):
This last version is visually (mostly) indistinguishable from the original, and clocks in at only 52kb.
Of course, if you are saving this as a still image, jpg should have been your choice in the first place, since it is a photo.
Conclusions:
- avoid Photoshop's "Save for Web" function if your intention is a quality colour reduction;
- avoid GIF for still images. Either use PNG or JPG. JPG works best for photos;
- avoid Photoshop and SfW if your intention is to optimize PNGs well. Sfw cannot save PNG files with reduced colours beyond 256 colours;
- fall back to external and/or online utilities to optimize PNG and GIF files. Color Quantizer and RIOT deliver better results than SfW. Or use online optimization tools to optimize animated GIFs (Optimize animated GIF). You can also optimize each frame in a tool such as CQ, and then import the individual frames into a animated GIF utility. Remember, each frame can save its own custom 256 colour palette;
- for optimum quality a quality mask tool, such as the one in CQ, is a very effective and efficient method to guarantee the best possible conversion;
- file sizes of png files created in external utilities almost always beat the ones generated in Photoshop and SfW;
- a better choice to export PNG files is Photoshop CC Generator. At least that one allows for 8bit PNG files with full transparency (another missing essential feature that SfW fails to provide).
Other resources (these refer to png, but are also effective for GIF optimization in Photoshop):
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/15/clever-png-optimization-techniques/
PNG Optimization Guide: More Clever Techniques - Smashing Magazine
Color Quantizer: Color quantizer
RIOT standalone version (no installation required): http://download.criosweb.ro/download.php?sid=R

Partial transparency with save for web gif?

Hey all,
I remember back in the day of photoshop 6 or maybe even 7, when I would create partial transparent .gif files through the "view menu" export transparency button, or something like that, and it would let me create beautiful partial transparent .gif files all with nicely rasterised edges.
I'm noticing in these newer versions of photoshop I have to save in the .png format to do that same thing (get that clean transparency).
Am I still able to create clean rasterised transparencies in gif file format via save for web in PS CS5 etc??? Or am I missing something?
Once of those things that bugs me and I need an older head to set me straight.
Any help would be great

One can still use them, I guess. But read this article for GIF and its replacement PNG. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2 F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FQA%2FTips%2Fpng-gif&ei=_JQTT_rOMcHjiAKF-vXtDQ&usg=AFQjCNHQ7JbGtlwXdnK5BWp 7tXEJ7IpfhQ

Problems with "save for web" app low quality messed up images

Please help I have never had a problem with the "save for web" application before (over three years) I am currently running A.I. cs3 on windows vista. in the past whenever I save anything this way the images were always clean. as of yesterday everything I try to save through the save for web app the images are very low quality all the vector has jagged edges, it is very low rez looking and the file sizes are very small, half the size they normaly would be. What did I do to change the settings or better yet how can I get it back to the way it was.

Thank you for your help I moved the folder but it still did not fix this problem. it is also not just the jpg option under the save for web app but all the setting ie. gif, png, ect. ect. Also the the files sizes are much less, example I exported a design as a jpg with the quality setting about 6 the file size was 374kb when I exported the same design through the save for web app the file size was only 45 kb on the quilty setting of 100. further more in the preview screen of "save for web" the original images as well as the optimized both look messed up. The "save for web" app has always worked for me in the past never a problem and I use this app alot so it is very important.

Why are the dimensions of my slice being reduced by 'Save for Web'?

Hey
When I create a slice and then select 'save for web' the selection i'm trying to save is reduced in size. Originally I only noticed this when I was finding the saved file in the folder, but I now I notice that in the preview of the save for web menu the size is smaller than the actual slice should be.
Any ideas what could be causing this? I'm using the latest version of Photoshop CC. It doesn't seem to be happening on our PC, but on both the Macs we have tried we are getting the issue.
Cheers

None of my pictures that I uploaded into iPhoto are in my Finder under Pictures. Should I copy and paste my folders from iPhoto into here, in case something happens to my iPhoto program (in addition to backing them up onto an external hard drive like I already do)?
No, that's just wasting space. A back up needs to be on a different disk.
Your photos are within the iPhoto Library.

Illustrator Batch - Save for Web PNG - File won't close

I am trying to convert several AI / EPS files to PNG file at 800 px.
I've tried using a batch incorporating either export as PNG and Save for Web - and neither on is working well.
The batch I built simply transforms the graphic to 800 px - Save for Web - then closes the file. Or exports the file as PNG at 800 px.
The problem is that the Save for Web Dialog box opens up each time or it simly doesn't export a file. I've tried checking off the various different surpress options in the batch dialog box - but nothing seems to work.
Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your answer but the images are not for web.
I need to enlarge them because they have a lot of detail and I need to send them to someone to be checked. The only place I can save as Gif is on the "Save for Web" dialog and Gifs have the smallest size/best quality ratio for the images I need.
I don't understand why when executing the batch process it stops at the "save window" waiting for me to click on "Save".
Nevertheless, thanks anyway

Possible Problem with Save for Web and Devices?

II've come here to the forum for some insight on why a gif file created by save for web and devices command is not showing up as an image in an uploading dialog box for my website. I'm buildiing my website with word press and a custom freelancer theme. I've created a customized header with Illustrator and have been saving the file with the save for web and devices command. Once I have my gif file, I go to my theme uploader and try to upload the gif image and place it on my homepage. I've not had any problems with doing this until yesterday, when I tried to upload an updated file. What usually happens is that the thumbnail image shows up in the dialog box, I select my options, and click insert. But what's started happening yesterday is that the thumbnail does not show up, unless I click on edit image. This makes no difference, as when I click insert and go to my homepage and refresh it, the header doesn't show up. I've tried working with the developer of the theme to resolve this problem and so far we've not found a solution. I've tried to upload the header with different file types: jpg, png, tiff, but they don't work. I thought I'd come here to see if anyone might have some suggestions. The problem may not be with Illustrator's save for web and devices, but I thought I'd give this forum a shot. Thanks for any and all respones. :[

CT,
If you can see and open the GIF/whatever (with any viewing application), the Illustrator Save for Web&Devices works. If not, you may ask about it in the Illustrator forum:
http://forums.adobe.com/community/illustrator/illustrator_general?view=discussions
If the image is there, to have the issue solved quickly, I believe you should ask in a forum covering the web building application.

Batch Save for Web in illustrator

Hi,
I'm trying to make a batch to process 110 illustrator files and save them as Gifs.
I record the Action (which includes "Save for Web" (enlarge to 1000*1400), Save, and then Close the Ai file (which I think is not even necessary if you choose "Save and close" in the Destination area of the batch window).
When I play the Action it performs "Save for Web", etc, but it doesn't save the Gif file, it waits for me to press the Save button.
It seems stupid but I want the batch to save the file by itself and carry on with next one.
Is this possible or do I have to press the save button for every file.
Thanks in advance
Jimmy

Thanks for your answer but the images are not for web.
I need to enlarge them because they have a lot of detail and I need to send them to someone to be checked. The only place I can save as Gif is on the "Save for Web" dialog and Gifs have the smallest size/best quality ratio for the images I need.
I don't understand why when executing the batch process it stops at the "save window" waiting for me to click on "Save".
Nevertheless, thanks anyway

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.

Save For Web always saves as a GIF

Hi Guys,
I think I may have a bit of a bug with Photoshop CS6 on my Mac. Every time I try to save an image through Save For Web, the file will automatically save as a GIF, regardless of what option I choose from the drop down menu. I have tried a reinstall of Photoshop and checked my setting against someone elses machine but I can't seem to resolve the problem.
When I enter the Save For Web window, in the bottom left hand corner it says 'GIF' (just above the preview button and zoom button), if I was to change the drop down menu in the top right hand corner to JPEG or PNG, the GIF in the bottom left hand corner would stay the same, meaning that the file format would stay as a GIF.
I've added an screenshot to show whats going on, the image in the preview is just text with a outer glow around it.
Any ideas on this, as i'm a bit stumped on what my next move should be.
Cheers,
Chris

Never seen this problem before. Have you tried the classic; resetting your preferences? http://forums.adobe.com/thread/963474?tstart=0

Save for web very slow

I have a new MBP Retina, clean install of the OS and Creative Cloud. Just setting up Photoshop, and Save For Web is extremely slow. It opens normally, but I get the spinning color cursor for 15-20 seconds and only after that does the image display in the preview window. Then for every checkbox I select, the color cursor comes back and all is delayed for another 15 seconds. The file is a square photo from an iPhone 5s, two layers, nothing else going on, 34mb.
I do have Suitcase Fusion 6 installed. Based on their instructions, I removed all fonts from the HD/library/fonts, and have certain web faces activated through Suitcase. (Arial, Courier, Georgia, Times, Trebuchet, Verdana).
On a new, empty file, all works as expected with no delays.
I had this same set up on this same Mac before I wiped the hd, and never had this problem.
Any thoughts...reset a preference or...?
Thank you.

I just noticed the above unresponsiveness happens with the 4.7mb exported PNG, so it's not related to the file size.

Save for web preview not working in Photoshop CS4

Hello all.
I'm having a problem with Save for Web in Photoshop 11.0.2. Basically, whenever I move to save an image using "Save for Web & Devices," the preview window is stuck in GIF mode. I can move the Preset settings to any of the choices, and also change to any of the 5 image types underneath, but only a GIF setting at 100% dither/Selective palette/256 colors preview will show in the preview window.
I have trashed both the Adobe Save for Web 11.0 Prefs and the com.adobe.Photoshop.plist files, and have repaired permissions, but this doesn't resolve the problem.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.
--jody radzik.

I fixed the problem by erasing "Save for Web" from within Photoshop rather than outside in the file tree.

Very Slow Save for Web in CS3 Mac

I have Photoshop CS3 Extended 10.0.1 running on a 2.16GHz Intel MacBook running 10.4.11 with 2Gb of installed RAM and around 30% free hard disk space.
Regardless of file size or dimension, Save For Web is painfully slow to load and to save out. Optimized previews update quick enough when settings are changed, but everything else about Save For Web feels like wading in treacle.
Anyone else got this problem? It would be good just to know that I'm not the only one with this issue!
Any ideas for fixes?
Jonathan

>My hatred of laptops has NOTHING to do with Photoshop
And my commentary had nothing to do with your hatred. The OP is all about Photoshop usage on laptops, and I am quite experienced using PS on laptops. When I said
>Note that older laptops like Ramón mentioned would not run PS...
I was just discussing the OP.
For the record I am not a proponent of using laptops or even the stronger iMacs as desktop tower replacements for heavy graphics users. I have consistently recommended in favor of towers and long life cycles and I will continue to do so.
However for the last six months or so I have frequently been using a C2D Macbook Pro as a desktop replacement and I can report unequivocally that it works, especially power-wise, which is what the OP was about. Also based on that experience and also unequivocally I consider using MBPs or the similarly limited iMacs for production graphics work inadvisable.
Strong laptops are incredible machines. They open mobile computing usages that can be of great benefit to many folks, enough benefits that I for one will always have a laptop as one of my computers. The ability to literally do any computing task (except volume graphics production) anywhere is pretty spectacular.
Photo capture, edits and presentation in the field is of huge benefit. Even with something as mundane as this forum communication the ability to do it sitting in the living room instead of sequestered in an office is IMO a good thing.

.gif preview slow in Save for Web

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for