how to stay under 20k?

[Iggy Hazard]

I can take a pic that's, say, 15k -- do anything to it (like crop and resize) -- and it bo0sts up past 20k even if I save it at the very lowest quality in JPEG format. If I grayscale it (I like that motif, especially with accents of red), it goes even higher. And forget sepia tone. I made an avatar that's perfect, but it's 26k. Must get it down to 19.9k or lower.

[dontlookback]

Message the avatar to me (if you want) and I'll try and figure it out for ya.

[Synamon]

Actually you need it smaller than 19 kB probably. If you post the picture here someone will fix it for you.

[LionsPride]

If you are using photoshop, follow the instructions in this thread (http://intjforum.com/showpost.php?p=181113&postcount=1).

In photoshop, when you alter a picture it can often make it larger even though you are altering it in ways that usually makes smaller pictures by comparison.

[Wapiti]

I use Gimp and when exporting an edited image as a Jpeg, you always get the option to select the quality. Exporting at 85% I've never had an issue with size.

[ssrprotege]

Actually you need it smaller than 19 kB probably. If you post the picture here someone will fix it for you.

To accurately put, your avatar should be smaller than 19.5 kb. When saving you avatar, "Save for Web" will be quite handy.

[Airius]

I save my avatars as GIF.

[Iggy Hazard]

In Photoshop, when you alter a picture it can often make it larger even though you are altering it in ways that usually makes smaller pictures by comparison.
Oh, I know how that goes. Any alteration increases the KB size. I've been using Photoshop for years. Just never realized how much impact tiny alterations have on the overall KB size. You'd think grayscaling would decrease it because it's less information than any color palatte, but no. Grayscaling a pic increases the file size.

I save my avatars as GIF.
Success! :cheesy: I'm just so used to Jpegging everything because of deviantART. :p

[LionsPride]

Success! :cheesy: I'm just so used to Jpegging everything because of deviantART. :p

That's because the image quality of a gif is terrible by comparison, even in avatar size.


Melon explained why using gifs sucks (http://intjforum.com/showpost.php?p=290146&postcount=10).

[Iggy Hazard]

That's because the image quality of a gif is terrible by comparison, even in avatar size.
In this case, it turned out fine since I diffused it with anisotropic filtering for a smo0ther overall appearance.

[Jezebel]

In this case, it turned out fine
The quality looks quite low to me.

Oh, I know how that goes. Any alteration increases the KB size. I've been using Photoshop for years. Just never realized how much impact tiny alterations have on the overall KB size.

If you can't get it under 20kb as a jpeg, you're saving it wrong. The reason JPEG images are usually too large in photoshop is that photoshop saves unnecessary meta-data (information about the file that isn't displayed in the image, which can be good for designers/photographers tagging their images, but not so much for avatars) by default. Alterations do affect the size, but once the meta-data is gone you have a lot more room to work with. You can usually save a detailed image at 90%+ quality in photoshop and still get it under 20kb.

To accurately put, your avatar should be smaller than 19.5 kb. When saving you avatar, "Save for Web" will be quite handy.
It should be 20kb even now.

[Iggy Hazard]

It should be 20kb even now.
Saved as a gif, it's 10.4kb.

[Jezebel]

Saved as a gif, it's 10.4kb.
I'm not sure what your point is. I was referring to the site limit rather than your avatar size.

[Iggy Hazard]

I'm not sure what your point is. I was referring to the site limit rather than your avatar size.
Point is it's nearly half the file size limit and yet it still looks the way I wanted it to (no decrease in image quality).

[Jezebel]

Point is it's nearly half the file size limit and yet it still looks the way I wanted it to (no decrease in image quality).
If you want to keep it as a gif, you can. If I didn't want to allow members to upload gif files I would disable that functionality. My point is if you're saving as a gif just to reduce file size in Photoshop because you can't get the jpeg small enough, the efforts are misguided and you can get better quality jpegs by saving with the right tool.

Take a look at this:

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o223/orlathe/screenshots/iggygif.jpg

This is your avatar as a gif file, which is 10.38k.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o223/orlathe/screenshots/iggyjpg.jpg

This is the same image without any alterations as a jpeg file at 100% quality. It is 4.707kb, which is about half the size of your gif version. Not that it looks any better in this case, since the original image is fully of chunky compression artifacts to begin with.