Comic Filesize

[Kalle B]

Hey!

I suddenly got the feeling that my comics - that is, the image files in themselves - are way too big. In your opinion, what is the maximum filesize one should allow for one's comics, if you want to consider people with slow dialup connections?

/Kalle B

[Cope]

You could get your filesizes down considerably if you saved your images as jpegs instead of gifs. I managed to cut 80KB off one of your comics by saving it as a jpeg in the GIMP and setting the quality level to 75% with no discernable loss in image quality.

As for what the upper limit of acceptable filesizes is? I dunno. Just get the image as small as you can without losing too much quality. It's a balancing act.

[Protectmyballs]

For PMB the comics are only 40 or 50 kb, saved as GIFs. They used to be 70s and 80s as JPEGs.
For PIH the comics are 140s and 150s.

I've never heard any complaints so far about the size for either site.

If you'r worried about, then try different file types and quality settings.

[Dutch!]

I save as pngs at 32 whatevers in Photoshop and usually get mine down around 60-75kb each with greyscale shading and stuff, but that's at 900x300 sizes. Apparently 75kb is the recommended upper size for dialup people, and seeings I'm one of them at the moment, I figured I'd try to keep them around that size.

[Kalle B]

Cope: thanks for the tip. I'll try that.

Reason I ask is, one of the ways to reduce size would be to decrease the measurements of the pictures (as of know, theyre 700x1000-ish), but if I can avoid that, and get them down to an acceptable size just by decreasing quality, I will do that, because I like the measurements as they are. But then I need to know what "acceptable size" is.

/Kalle B

[Netpoet]

For our comic, Michelle gets the file sizes down as much as she can, but we still end up at a minimum of 140K or so. I think it depends largely on what TYPE of comic you're doing. If, like us, you're doing a horizontal format with three rows of comics (which, after checking your site, looks like what you're doing) then just getting down as small as possible probably still won't get near that magical goal of 60-75K.

But I've not had the first complaint yet about the file size of our comic (probably because of Michelle's fabu artwork, heh) so I'd think that, as long as you're doing what you can to reduce it as much as possible, I don't think I'd worry too much beyond that.

[Mvmarcz]

my comics are above 150 and below 300 k I don't want my comic to lose any visual quality, and I found that the load time wasn't bad(I used to be on dial up so I figured that's the best way to tell )
I also save them as jpegs

[Kalle B]

When I try to repeat Cope's stunt, the images actually becomes bigger. To make a comic smaller as a jpeg than as a gif, I have to pull the quality down to levels where the loss of image quality is really discernbile.

I'm using Photoshop v. 6.0. Could this be the source of the difference in my experiences and Cope's?

/Kalle B

[Mvmarcz]

When I try to repeat Cope's stunt, the images actually becomes bigger. To make a comic smaller as a jpeg than as a gif, I have to pull the quality down to levels where the loss of image quality is really discernbile.

I'm using Photoshop v. 6.0. Could this be the source of the difference in my experiences and Cope's?

/Kalle B

Ok photoshop?
Alrighty when you save it as a jpeg make sure you're in rgb color and save it and drop the quality anywhere between 5 and 8 I'd say and even further you could try the save for web option

then again your file sizes are about what mine are. but I'm fine with my sizes

[Cope]

Ack, my maths was off; I actually managed to shave off 66KB, not 80KB. A 66KB difference can still be significant if you're on dialup, though.

Let's just try something: click here and tell me if this image looks of lesser quality than the gif version. I want to check to ensure that my monitor just isn't showing the quality loss or something.

[Nyke]

Doesn't this belong in Help Center? Or in the least, GD?

[Wp]

I think TTT is the appropriate place. I've seen that question there a few times.

Here's my opinion:
<72k if you have grayscale art with poor linework. This is the guideline I use because my inking is very fuzzy in the first place and doesn't worsen significantly if I decrease the jpeg quality

<72k if you have simple flood fill coloring with poor linework. Again, having poor linework in the first place allows you to decrease jpeg quality without seeing much of a difference. If you have flat colors, they are pretty easy to work with. If you have shading of any sort, I would go for a larger size.

<150k if you have grayscale art with good, crisp lines.

<300k if you have color shading or if you have excellent, crisp lines.

I wouldn't go above 300k in any case, because that just makes it annoying for your 56k modem readers.

[Kalle B]

click here and tell me if this image looks of lesser quality than the gif version. I want to check to ensure that my monitor just isn't showing the quality loss or something.

Yes, there ceirtainly is some quality loss there.

Never mind, though; I'm just gonna scale down the pictures, save them in jpeg (and take the quality loss like a man) and leave it at that.

Doesn't this belong in Help Center? Or in the least, GD?

I have a distinct memory of having posted this in GD... maybe I just missed.

I reasoned that Help Center is for technical questions about the website system, and TTT seemed to be about drawing in itself, so none of those seemed appropriate.

/Kalle B

[Warofwinds]

I scan the comic page at 150dpi, and then change the image size to 800x600. It's always good to find a rough image size you like just to make a template for yourself. WHen I save, if the file is more than 300k, I use the "save for web" feature to shrink the file size. If it's under, I don't care. I don't have to much mercy for dial-up users.

[Christwriter]

My images usually start as 8by11 images at 300 dpi. They're usually freaking HUGE because of the sheer number of layers I use...it isn't uncommon for me to have a 30MB file for just one page.

I resize down to 72 dpi and 715 pixels wide so it will fit inside the table on my site, then use the "Save for Web" option in Photoshop. I usually save it at 45 to 50 quality JPG. There's also a "blur" option which cuts down on filesize AND artifacts from bad quality JPGs. I can do up to .23 blur without making the image unintelligable.

CW

[Ryuko]

I try to keep it at about 70...

[Nicked]

I try to keep mine around 100kb. I scan at 200dpi, then cut that by resizing by 50%. My biggest page reached 200kb.

[Plothole]

When I try to repeat Cope's stunt, the images actually becomes bigger. To make a comic smaller as a jpeg than as a gif, I have to pull the quality down to levels where the loss of image quality is really discernbile.

I'm using Photoshop v. 6.0. Could this be the source of the difference in my experiences and Cope's?

/Kalle B

Different programs can contribute to differences in files sizes. From my experience, GIMP wasn

[Levi-chan]

As the people above have already mentioned - for colored stuff, use JPG. If you put the quality to 60, then apply a bit of blurring magic, it shouldn't be that noticeable.

I do my stuff at around 60. [size] / [dialup speed in kb/s]; where [size]=60kb, [dialup spped]=6KB/s; = 10 seconds! Woo!

[MixedMyth]

My comics had a lot of variation and detail, but there is a wide range. Something like this- http://mixedmyth.keenspace.com/d/20040730.html tends to range from 160-200 kb, whereas some of the full page, color pieces like this- http://mixedmyth.keenspace.com/d/20041210.html would break 300 kb. Mixed Myth was definately not dial up friendly.