I need to reduce my logo - I need help

They have: 55 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

hello, I keep making logos with paint shop pro 5. They turn out awesome but then when I save them as a gif file, the image just cuts down to only 256 colors. If I save it as a jpg, It looks even more crappy. What can i do?

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In a world of Compromise. Some Don't.
Heckler & Koch

Ken Elliott's picture

They have: 358 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

The best program that I can think of, to help with your dillemma is Ulead Smart Saver Pro ...download it from tucows.
http://download.tucows.com/perl/selectRegion.html?Target=adnload/dlusspro.html

just pick your area to download from...this is a free trial..

It should intergrate perfectly with PSP...

Hope this helps..

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Pimpin like a pimp with an electrofied pimpin machine!

They have: 2,390 posts

Joined: Nov 1998

Can we see these two versions?
JP

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[red]The Next Step in Website Development [/red] - http://www.what-next.com
The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Center

They have: 100 posts

Joined: Sep 1999

First, what platform Dude?

Ok this could be a long one.

When you reduce the size of an image your computer has to figure out how to turn x pixels into x pixels.

In other words if you reduce the size to 50% your computer takes 4 pixels and interpolates it into one.

The computer has to make some choices. What if 3 of those pixels are black and the remaining pixel is white?
Under these circumstances you'll get a blurred edge (assuming it was an edge).

NOW, if you make the reduction something other than a multiple of 2 (50% = 1/2 ,25% =1/4) weird things happen.
If you go with a 66% reduction your computer has to figure out how to turn 3 pixels into 1. Think about it.
4:1 the four pixels are a square 3:1 the pixels are some kind of 'L' shape. NOW, if you do an even less even reduction, say 55% your computer has to figure out how to change ? pixels into 1 pixel.

OK the upshot of this is you must PLAN ahead. Use image sizes that can be reduced by an even multiple of 2. OR use a vector program (illustrator, freehand) to design the image. Vector programs do not draw with pixels, they use mathematical formulas and hence reduce and expand better. But that is another story.

They have: 100 posts

Joined: Sep 1999

Opps, maybe I explained this wrong. I was thinking your logos were big and then you reduced the size.

Still the basic in the above post apply. If you have gradiations, and convert to a gif the computer has to interpolate 16,000+ colors to 256.

A .jpg image uncompressed will look virtually perfect. Compression reduces the number of colors in a different way. So the degree of compression will effect the final quality also. Your software may be automatically compressign the final image. Preferences?

The answer is to use only colors from the 256 color palette with no gradiations. If the image is for the web and the client is using a machine set at 8bit you will need to use a Web safe clut which is actually 216? colors because Mac 256 and PC 256 are slighly different and they only share 216 colors. Web cluts can be downloaded free from several website. However 90% of people use monitors with 16,000+ colors now.

Need more clarification?

They have: 2,390 posts

Joined: Nov 1998

I followed it fine and grabed a few tips Smiling
Thanks,
JP

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[red]The Next Step in Website Development [/red] - http://www.what-next.com
The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Center

They have: 297 posts

Joined: Apr 1999

A gif image should never have more than 128 colors. I usually cut em down to 4 to 32. You almost never see a difference, but if you do its time for a Jpeg. If the image is bigger than 300x300 pixels and it contains no big one color areas you should always use Jpegs.

By the way: If you are using Photoshop, never use the "save a Gif" function but always the export tool. The files get half as big.

Later,

Malte

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Malte Ubl - [red]Germany[/red] - http://goKewl.com/
[red]The beats of 1000 hearts inside...[/red] the merciless pulsation... [red]and all I know is I'll be back...[/red] back to trance nation!

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