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PORTFOLIO SERIES - article 8 - DIGITIZE AND OPTIMIZE YOUR FREELANCE PORTFOLIO IMAGES FOR WEB USE

By Rachel Goldstein
previous article

In order to showcase your portfolio online, you will need to have your images on your computer. In order to bring your artwork onto your computer, you will either need to scan your artwork or take a picture of it with a digital camera (if you want to photograph your artwork, please read this article). If you don't have a scanner, you can try out your local library or community college. Also, you can buy a cheap scanner for as low as $99 these days if you look around hard enough. If you are not skilled at scanning artwork, I recommend reading the following help files

• http://athena.english.vt.edu/
• http://www.scantips.com/

Image Manipulation Software

Next, we need to talk about image manipulation software. Do you already have Photoshop and Imageready or Fireworks? If so, you are set. If not, we will talk about other inexpensive or free alternatives below:

ArtGem 1.3 - $49.95 - This is an image editor similar to classic DPaint, but with the quality of Photoshop. You can scan, resize, merge and retouch your photos; create graphics for your Web site; or draw icons, sprites, and textures for game and multimedia productions. It includes hundreds of high-quality imaging tools and it supports 20 image file formats. Work with filters, selections, gradients and layers in the dynamic real-time interface.

Focus Photoeditor 3.0.25 - $20.00 - Use this tool to make CD or cassette covers, backgrounds or small index cards.
It includes basic image editing tools, including fill, crop, clone and airbrush. Support for different file extensions and filters for special effects are included.

Image Broadway 4.2 - $69.95 - This tool lets you create and edit graphic images like a pro in just minutes. This performs simple tasks such as one-click red eye correction as well as more advanced capabilities, such as intelligent lasso, transparency, alpha channel and multiple channels support, image mapping and optimization.

Ulead Photoimpact - $79.95 - This graphics editor provides 13 image galleries and includes an HTML assistant and helper program. You can manage and enhance digital photos, create graphics and produce high-impact Web pages for personal or business use, including interactive slide shows and video CD slide shows.

PhotoPlus 5 - Freeware - Enhance and alter the on-screen appearance of your image files. An Image Export Optimizer lets you preview images before saving them, and the multiple-window display provides side-by-side previews of image quality at various output settings.

VCW VicMan's Photo Editor 7.0 - Freeware - This is a versatile image editor with an intuitive interface. Use it to refine your digital photos, draw artwork naturally or produce graphics for the Web. Draw with a pencil, brush, or eraser, or paint colors in a gradient, add plain or anti-aliased text to any picture, fill objects and clear backgrounds. Choose from dozens of transformations, color effects and filters. The program supports almost all Photoshop-compatible plug-ins.

How to Optimize Your Images for a Web Portfolio

Now that you have an image editor installed on your computer, lets talk about how to optimize your images. What is optimizing? Optimizing is reducing the file size while losing as little resolution as possible. In order to load websites faster, optimization is necessary, but don't worry, it is a piece of cake once you understand what you are doing. We are just going to go over the basics in this article, if you are looking for more detail, let me know, and I will write an article with detailed information about optimizing web graphics.

Keep File Size in Mind When Optimizing Your Portfolio Images for the Web

The major thing that you want to keep in mind when optimizing an image is the resulting file size. In order to keep the file size down to a minimum, it is very important to save your files as the right file format, otherwise, you can accidentally create a very large file. What file formats should you use on the web? I recommend only using, .jpg, .gif, and .png.

These file formats are the most easily compressed and they are recognized on all browsers.

JPEG - The Jpeg format is the format that you should use when optimizing a photograph or images with smooth gradations of color. The Jpeg file format allows for 16 million colors and optimizes by throwing away pixels. This is the reason why jpegs are better for photographs ... since photographs have soft edges, it is easier to hide missing pixels (by interpolating touching pixels).

GIF - The Gif format should always be used for vector graphics or graphics with limited regions of color (graphics like logos, drawings, cartoons, etc.) and not photographs. Gif images consist of 256 or less colors. This file format can reduce your file size by 95% or more!!!

PNG - A new format that is compatible with most browsers but not all yet. Use the PNG format as if it were a GIF because they are very similar.

Below are examples of how to optimize images in Photoshop.

However, if you don't have Photoshop, please don't worry. Most Image Editors are very similar to Photoshop.

EXAMPLE 1.

Open up your file. By looking at the image to the left, can you tell which image format this file should be saved in? You should save this file as a .Gif file. Next, bring up the File > Save for the Web Dialog Box

Now you are in the 'Save for the Web' Dialog Box. Don't touch Web Snap it. Bring the Dither down to about 90%. Check on the Interlaced box.

Gifs are made up of information headers regarding colors within the image. The way to compress a Gif file is to reduce the number of colors within the image. The way to reduce colors in this Dialog box is to chooses colors in the color table that you feel won't affect the way that your image looks ... and then press the trash can. This will delete the unwanted color.

Another way to reduce the number of colors in your image is to change the number of colors in the 'color' drop down box.

Make sure that you have the 'optimized' tab (on the top bar) clicked on. Now you will be able to see what the finished optimized image will look like with all of the settings that you have chosen.

EXAMPLE 2.

First of all, open up a photograph. I have opened a silly picture of my son. What file format do we save photographs in? If you remembered correctly, you chose JPEF file format. Now open up the 'Save for the Web' Dialog box by going to File > Save For The Web.

Now you are in the 'Save for the Web' Dialog Box. Choose JPEG from the drop down box directly underneath where it says 'Settings'

You have the choice of choosing the generic settings of 'Low', 'Medium', 'High', or 'Maximum' ... but I suggest that you use the more detailed 'Quality' drop down box. Here you can choose from 0 to 100. Clicking on 'Progressive' will make lower-resolution images load up first in the browser. Leaving 'Progressive' unchecked means that the entire image will have to load before the browser will show the image.; Click on 'Optimized' box, this will use a slightly newer JPEG format that is a bit quicker than the old format. I would leave everything else alone, but experiment to see what works best for you.

Make sure that you have the 'optimized' tab (on the top bar) clicked on. Now you will be able to see what the finished optimized image will look like with all of the settings that you have chosen.

Well, we have completed our basic compression article. Next week we will cover more subjects that will get you prepared for an online portfolio.

 

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