JPEG - Shrinking the File Size

How can you shrink the file size of a jpeg (MB/KBs, not dimensions)? I've had a little bit of success with messing with the image quality on photoshop, but not enough. How can you get a phone down to the 5-10 KB range?

How large is the image in pixels? If it is large, you cannot get the file size extremely small without ruining the quality.

It would help if you posted a link to the file.

Remember that you shouldn't be opening jpegs and resaving them -- a non-lossy file format should be converted to a jpeg. Double lossy compression is akin to photocopying a photocopy or copying a copy of a cassette take. So in that case, it might help if you posted a link to the file _and_ a link to an original.

You could convert it to .gif and see if you get better results. JPEGs are only better if you're dealing with a photographic image usually.

If it isn't photographic, PNG usually gets better compression than GIF -- with paletted or grayscale images anyway, perhaps with 24-bit, depending on the image itself. I find PNGOUT by Ken Silverman useful for squeezing as many bytes out of the file size as possible. (http://advsys.net/ken/utils.htm)

you are wanting to shrink the size of the file to about 5-10kb...what is the size of the jpeg. Sam is right about exporting a jpeg as a jpeg.

As far as how to do it, like you have already experimented with how to do it in photoshop. Just try to save for web and it will give you a preview of the quality of the image. At least it will in cs, probably 7 as well.

well, I need this for a number of different applications (I'll try to post a link to one if/when I get a chance), but in most cases what I essentially wanted to do was to shrink the file size of a scanned or digital photograph. For example, for this forum, I would need to shrink a scanned or digital photo that I had in jpeg format down to 7kb so that I could put the picture in my profile.

//moved

If you are trying to ready a scanned image for web, make sure that the web version has a resolution of 72 or less. The images are often scanned at 150 or higher resolution. If your image has few colors go with gif. Or jpg is your best bet. Either way, make sure to use the save for web option and not save as, as vlad says. Save as web would reduce at least 30% size from the standard save as. Also you can try reducing the quality from the save as web window and find the least quality that preserves the look. For ozzu's dimension requirements your image should comfortably be under 7kb.

er...maybe I'll move it to the right place this time. Sorry.

lol DM, i saw this in flash forum and wondered lol

im glad i noticed this post. I want to compress the image at the top of my new layout:

http://www.neo-studios.com/~skyweb

even tho its the only image it mite not be for much longer and its quality is 8 in photoshop, i tried reducing it but the quality looked poor so i boosted it up agian. Thanks for the help

//edited

The current size is 88 kb. I used the Save for Web with jpg medium quality 30. The image looked acceptable for web and the file size came down to 25 kb only.

naaa, that was not the original poster.....

btw skyweb, the image that you are using, really could retain a lot of the quality if compressed as quantem stated.

not really ALL that necessary, but would really improve on the download time

Ah gee, thanks vlad. Name looked the same to my inattentive eyes. Message edited.