How to Compress Images for the Web

Photo editing programs enable you to have Web-friendly images.

Graphics and images are essential in any website -- whethery they're used for navigation such as navigational buttons, or used to showcase products a site sells. There are instances where images may slow down a site, especially if the site design heavy in graphics and loaded with pictures. To optimize sites like these, you need to compress images to be more Web-friendly. To do so, you only need a photo editing application and a basic understanding of image formats.

Things You'll Need

• Photo editing software

Instructions

1. Open your image in a photo editing application such as Photoshop, Paint.NET or Paint Shop Pro.

2. Resize the image if over the 1000x1000 pixels in size. Most Web images will only need to fill the typical browser screen resolution. See the Resources section for a link for the latest browser display statistics.

3. Choose the image format to save your image. Web friendly formats include the JPEG, GIF and PNG format. For photographic images, the best image format allowing the lowest compression without compromising quality is JPEG. Choose GIF or PNG if saving images with less colors, such as logos or monochromatic images.

4. Choose the quality of the image file. When saving images in web friendly formats such as JPEG, GIF and PNG, you will often be asked by your photo editing application about the level of quality for your image. The lower quality will have a lower file size while higher quality images have a higher file size.

5. Save your image.

Tips & Warnings

• Photoshop has an option to save an image for the Web. When you go to "File," choose the option to "Save for Web" and you will be given a window with options to save the file in Web-friendly image formats with a preview.

Resources

• W3Schools: Browser Display Statistics
• Adobe: Photoshop
• Corel: PaintShop Pro
• Paint.Net: Home