Hi all,

Yesterday, I finally started altering the digital books I bought. My muse is here and I'm on a roll.

I have to confess why it has taken sooooo long and then I have a specific question for anyone who can answer it.

Confession:  I have learned to dislike Paint Shop Pro because I could not, for the life of me, handle "layers."  Layers drive me insane!  I considered buying the basic PhotoShop, which so many people seem to be using here. However, when I looked at what PS does versus what PSP is "supposed" to do, it seemed like I had everything I need right here, and buying PS wouldn't help me "get" layers. I also have Fireworks and Xara Extreme (love them both). So, while desperately learning to work with layers, I passed up digital challenges here because I became frustrated and exhausted trying to make something look right.

Anyway, this week, I found myself working with layers in Fireworks and laughing at myself. Oh Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy, I can do layers! Now, can I do them in PSP? Today, I actually worked in Paint Shop Pro using layers, with a lot of challenges I might add. Who cares though...I did it!!! So I completed my cover for my first digital book! It took hours, well, all day LOL.

Now to the question:  What is an acceptable JPG size range for the individual pages that I'm to email out when done? My completed cover is 10MB, which is too large, in my opinion. I can reduce it of course. What file size ranges do you generally come up with?

Thanks for any input!

A good lesson that I learned is that when I walk away from something that frustrates me, I am still stuck in the same place I was in when I walked away from it. When overwhelmed it pays to make up my mind to stick with it, don't give up, and just figure it out. Whew!
 

I have a quick update on the file size of the JPG. It is now at a respectable 751 KB on disk, so I guess it shrunk overnight?  It looks the same! The original is just over 2 MB to start.

As always, thanks for input. I would still like to know your opinions and suggestions.

Howdy, Desire,

Here I go answering at work and putting my job on the line!   But hey, it's for my art buddy!   :O) 

When you save your files with layers, it can be very large.  My Photoshop files are often 30 MB or even larger.  If you do a "Save As" and choose "jpg," the resulting picture will no longer have layers.  It will have combined all the layers into one.  Actually, that's what you want for your finished Digital Book pages.  If you are printing your pictures, you want them to be at least 300 dpi.  (dots per inch)  If you click on Image Information in Paint Shop Pro, it will tell you what the dpi is.  However, for viewing pictures on a computer screen,  the standard is 72 dpi.  Actually, that is even changing now with all the better monitors that are available, so many people use 96 dpi for their onscreen pictures.  To change the dpi of a picture, you click on the resize option.  You do not want to change the "size" or dimensions of the picture, however.  You only want to change the dpi.

I sure hope this is somewhat helpful.     

Hi Bill, you're very kind to reply. I'm glad that you mentioned the dpi because that's important depending on what one is going to do with the image. I usually set mine at a minimum of 96dpi for web views, and higher for quality or if it may be enlarged.

I'm glad I'm not the only one with large files! But once you get to playing around, well, you know...The funny thing about the image is that even though the layers are merged and it is a JPG, if I open it in PSP it balloons to 10MB or so. Other than that, when viewed with oh, "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer" or emailed to myself, it is around 700 KB.

Is it normal when opening the image with PSP for it to become so large, when its properties (right click) say something else? I know that it is not the saved .pspimage that I'm opening, and that it doesn't turn into un-merged layers. Then again, with me, ya' never know!

Wow, I have all sorts of new options for this post like font family/size/color and bgcolor! I must have enabled something special. Woo-Hoo! I get to play with layers and THIS! Oh wait, I can indent too. Hmmm...

Thanks again for the info!