(no subject)

[cheekbones3]

Anyone got advice on how to shrink an image without losing detail? I'm finding that the image I'm shrinking loses quality badly in both jpg and gif formats, and I'd really like to make some new icons!

Comments

[gnomatron.livejournal.com]

use better software? what are you using?

[fleurione.livejournal.com]

.tif ?

[deililly.livejournal.com]

Re-crop the pic to make the details bigger and sharpen the image before resizing. It can help to raise contrast and/brighten the pic too.

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

Aye that might help! I'm using bog-standard Windoze rubbish, so that certainly won't help.

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

Is that a more detailed format?

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

Cheers.

[thewomanmeg.livejournal.com]

I used Picassa (by google) to sharpen image and crop then exported to 100 pixles (to explain picassa has a function which allows you to edit and crop photos without affecting the original stored image. The images are then exported as copies which you can set to be any size you want)

Mine came out quite well and the detail is still there (see above)

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

I've just downloaded GIMP, and this seems to be doing the job pretty well, so I'll so how that goes first. I may well have a new icon within the hour!

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

And here is the finished product!

[thewomanmeg.livejournal.com]

Lovely.

Is that the Earth-y design for this year...oh and do you know Kat she's doing Earth this year.

[lyra.livejournal.com]

Oh woow.
I like it :D
Why is there lines on your face?

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

That was just a design for the day, but it may be some sort of basis for the finished thing.

I do indeed know Kat, you know her from redness last year? We shared a (rather damp and cold) tent on Saturday night.

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

Cheers!

That's a design based on an Ogham Stave for hazel. We were out for a group away-weekend, the group being Earth Point for this year's Beltane Fire Festival. Now there's a couple of things that you can look up online, much easier than me explaining them, and there should be some good picture about!

How are you getting on?

[thewomanmeg.livejournal.com]

No she's one of my very favourite uni people (and one of the only ones who doesn't judge/laugh at me)

give her kisses when you see her next.

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

Yep I've certainly noticed her openness and acceptance of people. Puts me at ease around her and the rest of the group, which is just what I need! I wasn't sure about her initially, but any worries I had have disappeared. Although it may be a tough task, I will force myself to pass on the kisses!

[thewomanmeg.livejournal.com]

I was the same about her at first...I was scared by the laugh!

All I can ask is that you try your best kiss wise.

[fleurione.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall something suggesting it might be, but I don't know exactly.. maybe worth looking into though.

[bunnyphone.livejournal.com]

*eyebrows you*

:oP

PS first comment made no sense, having re-read.

[kymara.livejournal.com]

when I shrink an image, I usually increase the resolution (i.e. dpi or pixels per unit length) to compensate. works for me, as does using gimp :)

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

I seemed to get things working, not sure if it was because I used tif or not!

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

Ah I see!

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

Yep I tried that too :O)

[r1chard.livejournal.com]

I presume by the way that you've got a new icon that you already fixed this ;)

Just a little FYI for web graphics (not that I'm particularly an expert): 72 dpi is around the resolution of a screen, so generally having resolution any higher doesn't make any difference. JPEG is a lossy format, which means that every time you save it you lose information due to the compression algorithm used. GIF, in the mean time, is an evil evil 256 colour format which was (and may still be) the intellectual property of CompuServe. That is, don't use GIFs. For web graphics I recommend PNG format /except/ where transparency is involved, because there is a render bug in Internet Explorer which makes the transparent area a big grey box (go Microsoft).

You can do a lot worse than using the GIMP for graphics. Avoiding using a lossy format until you are finished sorting out your graphics is also a good way to avoid losing detail. Ever time you save a jpeg is does some funky interpolation across the image, and "smoothes" it a little (to reduce the info it needs to store).

[fleurione.livejournal.com]

cool beans anyhoo :)

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

Brilliant, cheers. You're correct that I sorted it, and I'll not use gifs any more! Not that I often did anyway...