I am still climbing the learning curve with most of this so please bear with me.
I finally have finished my first site and now uploaded to fatcow.
However, it seems to be running very slow, and not sure what the problem is.
I have 7 pages of showcase galleries. So the first thing I did was to downsize the images. However, it still seems slow.
Before I go ahead and attempt downsizing again, I wanted to make sure this was the best thing to do. OR could it be something on Fatcow’s side that prevents the images from loading properly?
Thanks Dave! I appreciate the info. It only seemed reasonable that size was the issue. Any suggestions how far I should downsize my galleries in order to make them load smoothly?
You have some images in there about 860 x 600 - with that in mind I think you will still get pretty good quality with file sizes sub 80k and a good bit smaller for some. Adjust compression to reduce file size.
Hey David
I finally had the chance to downsize some of my images in the showcase galleries. I feel like they are running a little smoother and quicker, but still not where they should be.
The inspector window for the showcase galleries does not show file sizes. It shows points. I reduced all mine to 600 for the large displays.
I am afraid if I decrease them more I will compromise images, or at least the effect of display.
Of course I am open to your professional suggestions. Please let me know the course of action.
They are still too large - you really need to adjust your compression to get them down more.
Look in the Showcase Output inspector under the Cog icon. Large Image output. There you can set smoothing, quality and whether to create progressive images or not. Play with the quality setting. Turn on progressive.
Personally I would do my resizing/compression in PShop and use the Pass-through setting in the Showcase Output inspector to best reduce your file sizes.
Your Film gallery is currently over 5Mb. Those 18 images should weigh in nearer 1.5Mb
This is all great information and I really appreciate the follow ups! I hope you don’t mind guiding me through this.
Your example shows only a minor differences, well within acceptable levels of shading.
I don’t have Photoshop, so I may be a slight disadvantage. I use Aperture. Photo sizing is not an area I excel at. Though I am well aware of the difference between 259kb and 66kb. SO hopefully thats a good start.
I just need to figure out how to make them smaller files without actually making the image too small to see.
You say in the output inspector to turn on Progressive. What will that do?
Then also in the output inspector there is a slider for “quality”.
Is that what I need to decrease the file sizes? OR is it something else?
I am at a bit of loss because I don’t know what the actual file sizes are - not sure how you know them either.
There is nothing in the inspector to indicate file sizes. If there was something on the inspector that told me file sizes- I am sure I would not be in such a grey area of confusion.
You say in the output inspector to turn on Progressive. What will that do?
Deliver the image in stages rather than 1 lump - quicker initial delivery so that the viewer has something to see while the whole pic loads.
there is a slider for “quality”. Is that what I need to decrease the file sizes?
Yes - this increases jpeg compression
I don’t know what the actual file sizes are
In the Finder select your image file and File>Get Info or use Right click>Get Info
You can also use Preview to compress your images. Open an image in Preview then do a File>Save As - at the bottom of the dialogue box you will see a Format Picker and a Quality slider. Adjust the quality slider and you will see the New file size displayed below. Well worth saving these images in a separate folder to distinguish them from your originals. If you use this method then in Showcase output inspector use the pass-through option.
In doing this you are not changing the dimensions of the images 600 x 700px (or whatever) but the jpeg compression.
SWEET !
Can’t thank you enough!!
I spent the morning taking down the quality to 60% on all my galleries.
Not sure if I am completely done (or ever will be) but at least I know, now that I am marching in the right direction.
The site as a whole definitely seems to move/load much faster, but I am still seeing a few slow spots. I’ll have to spend some time ‘tweaking’ later in the week.
I do wish they would add an image/file size display to showcase that would have taken a lot of the guess work.
out.
If you can think of anything else that would improve the site, I am all ears, but if not I sincerely appreciate your guidance to this point.
If your ever in Philadelphia I owe you a couple beers!
Preview can come to your help in many ways but before that look in Finder. If you show the size column (view>show view options> size) you will see how big all your pics are. All at once in list view. So before you begin building the showcase you know what needs to be reduced/compressed
If in Preview you open all the photos in one go (select all then open) you will have all the pictures on the right in a column so you quickly pick the ones for treatment. Then open the inspector (tools>show inspector>) you will see in the general info pane the info you want. Click through these panes and you will see lots of other info about the image too - which camera, exposure info etc
Elsewhere in preview you will find, under tools, further utilites including resize, crop and so. Have a look round it I am sure you will find some thing which will speed up your work flow.