Overview

Images, particularly photos can become very large depending on the equipment used to create them. Similar to audio and video files, any compression applied to photos will result in a loss of quality and therefore these tips are aimed at functionality over finish.


Tools

The university provides image editing software on most university machines. For these tips we would recommend using the following:

  • Adobe Photoshop


Exclamation mark icon Important:

  • Before you proceed with any of these suggestions, be sure to keep a back up of your work as the quality of images could potentially be lost permanently.
  • It can be tempting to use 3rd party software that compress files for you - but beware that many of these sites could infect your device with a virus.
  • Resizing an uploaded image isn't enough to reduce file size, you should resize it offline and follow the techniques below first.

1. Choose the correct file type

Saving your image as a JPEG is the best way to keep file sizes small, however quality will be compromised. PNGs do create larger files but have transparent capabilities as well as maintaining picture quality. If picture quality is not important to the image you are uploading then you should refrain from using the TIFF format as this is largely used for publishing purposes.


The "Save As" dialogue box.


2. Adjust the resolution

When you create a file in Adobe Photoshop it is possible to adjust the resolution. This will affect image quality but reduce file size significantly. 


Setting the image size in Adobe Photoshop.


3. Change colour depth/mode

One way to reduce the file size of images is to limit the number of colours that can be utilised. 32 Bits/Channel give us access to more colours and therefore richer, higher quality images, but 8 Bits/Channel should be suitable in most cases. Adobe Photoshop allows you to do this by choosing image > mode > 8 Bits/Channel.


Limiting the number of colours to 8 Bits/Channel.


Further support

For general queries about the Learning Space, students should first contact their module leader or personal tutor. For any other comments or issues within this guide, please contact the Digital Learning Team via dlsupport@falmouth.ac.uk. Alternatively, please refer to the numerous help guides found on our Knowledge Base. 


View the Accessibility Statement for all of our support guides.