[TUTORIAL] How to reduce your image size to abide by forum rules.

Feek · 10 Feb 2012 at 20:04

This is really irrelevant now because signatures are effectively unlimited

As you may or may not know the forum rules require signature images to be 90KB (Kilobytes) in size or less. Now there are few ways to get what we want and listed below are a few options. Here are the rules in full regarding signatures:

OverclockersUK FAQ said:
A signature may contain one or more images but they must fit within a box with maximum dimensions of 400 x 75 pixels (width x height) and with a maximum (combined) file size of 90k. Images containing mostly very large words or animated .gifs will not be permitted. You may also add 1 consecutive lines of normal or smaller text directly above or underneath the image with no spaces inbetween image and text. If no images are used then up to 4 consecutive lines of normal or smaller text is permitted. Do not pad out your text lines with blanks lines. A line of text is defined as having a maximum length of 400 pixels.

TinyPNG

"TinyPNG uses smart lossy compression techniques to reduce the file size of your PNG files. By selectively decreasing the number of colours in the image, fewer bytes are required to store the data. The effect is nearly invisible but it makes a very large difference in file size!"

Put simply it is simply to Smush It (see below) but this seems to be a bit more stable and give better results according to some, try it for yourself and see what happens.

Code:

tinypng.org

Smush-It Provided By Yahoo!

Code:

http://www.smu****.com/ysmush.it/

The url has been blocked due to a swear word within the name so join Smush & It together

It is a free service provided by Yahoo! and allows you to greatly reduce the size of uploaded images. The image you upload is only stored for a short time allowing you to re-download it

Adobe Photoshop (thanks goes to moogle for explaining how to do this

)

For those of you who have Photoshop then you can do it yourself by doing the following.

1. With Photoshop open and your image loaded press "File" and select "Save for Web & Devices" (the image shows Photoshop CS5).

2. Now make the needed changes for the image (make yours look like mine):

3. Now press the "Save" button and choose where to save it and you are done!

Here is a before and after sample of using the Photoshop method:

Before being Photoshopped (91.2KB).

After being Photoshopped (19.4KB).

Paint.net (thanks goes to Glaucus for mentioning this)

Another similar option to that of Photoshop is Paint.net which is freely available for download and can be gotten from this link.

Stoner81.

KiiYzOo · 11 Feb 2012 at 22:15

nice

moogle · 11 Feb 2012 at 22:26

Photoshop (6.74KB)

I believe the smusher has been smushed?

Actually even Microsoft Paint manages a 10.9KB file.

Glaucus · 12 Feb 2012 at 00:11

Just download paint.net free and easy.

Stoner81 · 12 Feb 2012 at 22:47

moogle said:
Photoshop (6.74KB)

I believe the smusher has been smushed?

Actually even Microsoft Paint manages a 10.9KB file.

How the heck did you manage that?

Stoner81.

moogle · 12 Feb 2012 at 23:44

Just loaded your 20KB one in Photoshop and chose "Save for Web" with a Quality of 60 (High) and saved it.

I couldn't see a big difference in visual quality, plus it's a sig

Dark_Angel · 13 Feb 2012 at 12:05

I'll bring this to the attention of people

Stoner81 · 13 Feb 2012 at 15:40

^^ Cheers!

moogle said:
Just loaded your 20KB one in Photoshop and chose "Save for Web" with a Quality of 60 (High) and saved it.

I couldn't see a big difference in visual quality, plus it's a sig

Ah right! Thanks for that

Stoner81.

needforspeed · 15 Feb 2012 at 21:14

Stoner81 · 23 Feb 2012 at 17:15

Added some more screen shots and instructions to the first post, I have also added the suggestions made by Glaucus and moogle (with appropriate thanks being given).

Stoner81.

Luke · 13 May 2012 at 19:19

Pointing to this thread would be a far more worthwhile way of enforcing this than simply deleting a sig image and pointing to the faq.

Stoner81 · 18 May 2012 at 22:15

Luke said:
Pointing to this thread would be a far more worthwhile way of enforcing this than simply deleting a sig image and pointing to the faq.

Not a bad idea

I have added the complete rules about signatures to the first post just so as everything is there.

Stoner81 · 25 Nov 2012 at 00:07

Added another option to the first post

Stoner81.

Roady · 28 Aug 2013 at 11:55

Not sure why the rules only allow a height of 75 pixels, most forums (with a limit) and most programs/sig generation/default sig sizes are 80px?!

Burnsy2023 · 28 Aug 2013 at 13:03

Roady said:
Not sure why the rules only allow a height of 75 pixels, most forums (with a limit) and most programs/sig generation/default sig sizes are 80px?!

Because both are pretty arbitrary limits, it's just we've chosen to keep them to 75px for historical reasons? That answer your question?

colinmcr · 23 Nov 2013 at 20:28

I'm try to use imgur to resize an image that is 2048x1365, however when I change the width too 400 the height goes to 267. I untick lock proportions and set it to 400x75 but the image looks very squished. Is there anyway to maintain the aspect ratio but not looks squished?

Glaucus · 24 Nov 2013 at 17:27

Not without cropping it.
Post what you have and someone will help.

WGP Images · 21 Apr 2014 at 10:56

Can someone verify whether a signature can contain a Hyperlink to a website .... i understand the size rules, and can only apologise for the over site .

Stoner81 · 23 Apr 2014 at 13:56

WGP Images said:
Can someone verify whether a signature can contain a Hyperlink to a website .... i understand the size rules, and can only apologise for the over site .

My initial thought would be no but since nothing is in the signature rules about it I can't say for certain one way or the other, one of the higher ups should be able to help on that though

Stoner81.

cjenks22 · 15 Dec 2015 at 23:53

how do i post a youtube video?