What's new
Photoshop Gurus Forum

Welcome to Photoshop Gurus forum. Register a free account today to become a member! It's completely free. Once signed in, you'll enjoy an ad-free experience and be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Loss of quality - noob here.


NickARF

New Member
Messages
1
Likes
0
Hi there,

I use a template to create banners. These are simple banners to be used on the web.

The banners are two main colors on-top of a product. The colors are red and teal.

When I have to create a new banner, I have to go over the red and teal to then put text over them.

Strangely; when I save for web, the red because mottled and the edges become jarred and bitty. Does anyone have a reason for why this could be happening? I'm not versed highly in Photoshop, so I thought I'd ask!

I save each file at 72 res, RGB, 100 quality JPG.

thanks!
 

MrToM

Guru
Messages
3,595
Likes
3,321
Does anyone have a reason for why this could be happening?

Hi NickARF,

Jpg is not the best format to use...its a 'lossy' compression.
The 'jarred and bitty' quality comes from compressing to jpg format and unfortunately in your case RED is the worst colour for it. Its more commonly know as 'artifacts', for obvious reasons.

I don't know if your original image is also in jpg format but constantly saving a jpg image TO jpg will decrease the quality every time you save it.

Does the image look ok before saving?

If so, use 'Save for web and devices' and choose the output format from there....you can set the window to 'Two up' which will show you the original image AND the image when its saved to the format you choose.

If you can, save to PNG instead...its a 'lossless' compression which basically means the quality isn't compromised as much (if any).

Ideally you should have your 'template' as a PSD file with which you can make your edits and then save out to your final image file...in whatever format you want. A psd file will not degrade the quality each time you open, edit and save it.

If you have an example to show us it would help us give you a more direct answer.

PS. The resolution has nothing to do with it btw, ignore it if you intend this for web only.

Regards.
MrTom.
 

Tom Mann

Guru
Messages
7,223
Likes
4,343
1) MrT: "...PS. The resolution has nothing to do with it btw, ignore it if you intend this for web only...."

To clarify MrTom's comment, the word, "resolution", has several different and commonly used meanings. So, as Mr. Tom said, resolution in terms of a PPI or DPI number has nothing to do with your problem. However, "resolution" in terms of the pixel dimensions (eg, 400 pixels wide by 100 pixels high) might be a major contributing factor. We would have to see your file and know more about the intended usage to tell.

To avoid the potentially confusing terminology, I would have completely avoided the use of the word, "resolution" and simply phrased the response as, "The PPI/DPI setting has nothing to do with your problem, however the dimensions of your image in number of pixels could easily be a contributing factor."

2) There was an earlier discussion about loss of quality in red areas as pertains to Facebook postings. After a slow start, the meat of the discussion is in Post #14 of the thread, and the next couple of posts. Take a look at it. It sounds like you are facing either the same, or a very similar problem related to a chroma subsampling issue.

3) While file formats (ie, like PNG) that provide lossless compression are an excellent way to avoid this problem, in some cases, one has no choice but to submit a JPG. The thread I cited above shows that one can do a lot to optimize the quality of a JPG, even if the file size or pixel dimensions are constrained.

HTH,

Tom M
 

Top