JPEG setting to maximize quality/minimize size

[ahmad]

Basic ACDSee window. That slider has a big impact on quality obviously, but what is the best setting for all the options?

[Soulburner]

I'm glad this came up.

I work in Photoshop and usually save with a quality of 10 and "Progressive" as any higher greatly increases file size and does not offer any difference unless you studied them up close, flipping them back to back.

That is what I have found works best for me. I'd like to know what the "ideal" is.

[Vapor]

For online publishing, I use "73" via Photoshop's "save for web" (no preview thumbnail [smaller size], higher control of final saved image w/o changing the original). It has EXACT filesize estimation....also has full GIF and PNG control :)

For sharing with family or for archiving, I keep it at around 90.

The first is equivalent to a "9" in Photoshop's 1-12 scale, the latter I use "11."

"Progressive" is for online purposes....essentially allows the image to be rendered progressively if it's slowly loaded. This is for dialup connections mainly....only changes the data pattern (though is typically a larger file).

[Soulburner]

I have compared the file size difference in Progressive and it is trivial.

Using "Save for Web" kills all the EXIF data, so that isn't an option for a lot of people like me.

[ahmad]

I am learning.

So why would I care about EXIF data?

[Soulburner]

http://www.digicamhelp.com/learn/glossary/exif.php

http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/38/what-is-exif/

You can view EXIF data for a photo in Photoshop, or in the Opera browser by right clicking a picture. Its very useful.

[nn_step]

actually what I prefer is to use the preview option and reduce the settings until the point where it doesn't look like I want it to

[Magnj]

I shoot in RAW and save anything I do as high quality ass possible

[Vapor]

I shoot in RAW Ditto....but for more reasons than just JPEG compression (as I'm sure you do).
...and save anything I do as high quality ass possibleThis I actually don't do. I only save exactly what I plan to publish as I plan to publish it and in a separate folder. I keep the RAWs and the accompanying .xmp files and just reprocess the photo if I ever need to reuse it later and the existing file won't work.

Regarding EXIF....never found a use for it so I just ditch it :p: Just takes up extra bits for me....my file system already has dates built in and the camera settings are of no import to me (I only occasionally care about ISO, but I can tell which setting I used just by looking at the image [for my cameras]).

[Magnj]

Right. I save the original DNG files in a dated folder, make a sub folder for modified photo's and save anything I plan to publish in there. Sometimes I end up with 2 copies of a file in the sub folder because of my work flow though.

[-X-hellfire]

I usually use quality at 93% and disable the 2:1 option for maximum quality

as my new avatar of my cat taken a few days ago shows

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[Butcher_]

I generally use 10 baseline optimized in photoshop, it seems to give good results.

Also you can get an exif viewer plugin for firefox here (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3905).