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Reduce file size of images exported through iPhoto
Authored by: VHDLBigot on Aug 05, '03 01:51:50PM

When I first tried to use the .mac account's photo album ability I had a similar problem. I barely noticed the overhead of the metadata in the "full size" images, but when .mac made thumbnails, they were still huge due to the metadata. Thumbnails should be 3-6KB otherwise what's the point? With the metadata included in the thumbnail images, the .mac album thumbnail album overview took FOREVER to load. So yes, either use a tool like Imagemagik's mogrify to strip the metadata or be sure in Photoshop [Elements] to do a Save for Web. Otherwise your thumbnails images will be 90% metadata bloat.

Of course, consider what JPEG quality factor is acceptable for what you are doing. I usually find the 70% or so is fine for the average picture that's destined for on screen viewing only.

With these considerations, the thumbnail is usually around 4K with larger full screen versions running 30KB-70KB. Using Javascript you can program the users browser to prefetch the next picture while they are admiring the current shot -- further speeding up the perceived browsing time.

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Scott
BilikFamily.com



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