.gif image degradation (n00b question)
susato (20 pencils) | Wed, 2004-11-24 16:14Hello all, I am trying to do my "creative bit" for a forum website, by putting up special purpose logos for special days. (it is also turning out to be a good way to learn the basics of PhotoShop and Illustrator)
I always start with the same .gif image of the forum logo, edit it in Photoshop, save it as a .gif and upload it. Unfortunately the quality of the image in the updated version is always degraded from the original version.
For example here is the original .gif:
and one of the revised versions:
After the editing, the image is grainy and unattractive - not just the additions but the original parts as well.
What are some good ways to get around this problem?
Many thanks,
Jean
PS Thanks Ivan for the cool biochemistry avatar!
Commenting on this Forum topic is closed.
Since GIF isn't naturally a lossy format, it looks like you need to adjust the number of colors in your GIF's color pallete. In Photoshop, after you've clicked Save To Web, choose GIF as the type of format and then make sure Lossy is set to 0%. For Colors choose a number of colors that will yeild a good quality graphic, and yet will still keep the file size small. Play around with the number of colors based on what you see on the Preview pane of the Save To Web window. Hope this helps!
Sorry, I wasn't signed in when I made that last post. Now you know who responded!
hi Jean!
besides what Craig well said...
when you open a .gif image in PS it's 256 colors. before starting to work on it you need to convert it to RGB. once you're done, choose save for web. if you don't convert it to RGB than you will be forced to work in a 256 color palette, which will criple your design.
Aha, I see what I was doing wrong - I was saving as a .gif and selecting the web palette, rather than saving "for web".
Yes, I've noticed that to do anything at all with those files I have to change the mode to RGB color from indexed color. Since I'm working with the same b&w template each time, and putting in only small areas of color or colored text, the 256-color limitation hasn't been too troublesome yet. The colors all look a bit different on the screens of my home desktop, my work desktop and my laptop anyway, so at this stage I'm not inclined to be too picky about specific hues. (If this were for print, team business cards for example, it would be a different matter)
I'll try out your suggestions for the next few variations (Starting Dec. 2 or so) and let you know how they turn out. Many thanks to both of you for your help!
With best wishes,
Jean
Good fun, good people and a good cause -
Folding@Home with Team Mac OS X
Actually .gif IS MOST DEFINITELY a lossy format. It throws away all but 256 colors at the best. Set the color mode to adaptive and use the preview screen and adjust accordingly.
You might also want to consider using .jpg instead, that way you can leave the image in RGB mode.
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That's not entirely true... in the sense that it's used in image compression parlance, .gif is a lossless compression. Assuming a certain palette, you can save, edit, resave, send, resave again and never lose any detail. It's a bit tricky defining a lossy format any other way; you might as easily say that .bmp is a lossy format because it throws away all but 16 million colours.