Question: Sometimes, after you save your collages, they seem to lose quality. For example, you've made a borderless collage on a black background. So you want the edges to "fade to black". However, instead of a smooth transition, you can clearly see the "steps" as the edges approach blackness. 

I assume this is because the software automatically reduces the file size. Are there any neat tricks to avoid getting these "steps" without saving LARGE. Is there an ideal file size (depending on image size, of course)? Or has this got nothing to do with file size?


I don't know what software you use. I use Photoshop 6 and usually I save the files using the Save for Web, instead of Save as. If you use just save as, you will have a large file. When using Save for Web you can chose the quality of the jpg. I think you are trying to save your files as gif. If you do that you will lose quality because it doesn`t work with many colors. Save you collages always as jpg, using the Save for Web, of course. By Claudia.


I don't like the way photoshop compresses images so I usually save them as psd files and use Micrografx to compress my images. I use high resolution, generally with a compression of 10. If the image is REALLY huge, I will use a medium resolution. I used to want my images around 50K but that's just too small and the compression is way too lossy. So these days if I get my image under 150K, I feel like I'm doing good. 

A good guide to go by is if you have text in your image. If you can easily read the text, without pixelation around it, it's at the perfect resolution. 

But the key in any program is to play around with the compression. Some images will require more compression, some less. You want to use the least amount of compression as possible, so the file size is smaller but it hasn't lost any quality. By Krisnreine.


This isn't exactly an answer, but related to your question. If you use a gradiant on your collage, when making it borderless on white, you will see the gradiant show up as a faint halo around the image when you have it on the web. A way to ditch this is to flatten the image, after you are completely done, bring it onto a new white background and then mask it, now you can see the halo and erase what you don't want. 

As for saving.. I am dial up and refuse to sacrifice quality for download time :( so I save in PS as high as I can.. if there is no text, I will save smaller.. if there is text, I will make it higher. 

The save for web works well and you can see your options. By Val.

Question: I’ve worked with text and it got really, really small. You can hardly see any of it, and the only normal sizes are over one thousand points. I don't know what the deal is. It went back to normal for a little while, but now it's back like that again. I need some serious guidance. Has anyone had this problem before? I have Photoshop 5.5, if that makes any difference.

Does your text get small after you open a new document? I have Photoshop 5.0, but when that happens to me, it's usually because the resolution of your canvas is big - when that happens, no matter what pixel length/height you set it at, the canvas is *huge.* Try opening a new one and setting the resolution at 80. That might bring your text size back up. By Linzee.

Question:  Do you have a general size with which you'll start? How often for you does that starting size end up being the same size when you're finished?

I tend to start with at *least* 1200x1400.. and work from there. Once I get the images on and they begin to take shape, I shrink to 1000x1000 or so. I rarely go under that these days for working on the layers.. once flattened, sizes vary, but tend to be big lately..usually hovering about 1000x1000. By Touchstone.

I start with 750x750. then once i'm done i usually add a border and reduce the image to 600X600 for size reasons (it takes longer to upload big collages and also for people to open them). so i start with 750 and make 600 collages. :) By Cynthia

If I want to make a horizontal collage, I usually work on a 850x600 pixel canvas ... I have a 1024x768 resolution and I can see the collage entirely, without having to scroll.
When I want to make a vertical collage, I usually work on a 550x650 pixel canvas.
This changes when I'm working on a wallpaper, of course. In this case, I work on the 1024x768 size. By Tere.