Denise Vitola

February 15, 2001

Has this ever happened to you? You've just surfed into a promising web site, only to be greeted with the following message: Please be patient. This page contains several graphics.

So, you try to be patient. You wait and wait and ten minutes later, you are still waiting. Why? Well, it could be that the web site designer has tried to place a hundred pictures on a single html document; it could be that the Internet is slow from traffic; but most likely it is because the web site designer has not optimized its JPEG images.

Optimizing JPEG images? What does that mean?

JPEG is a term that refers to one of two graphics file formats support by web browsers. It is basically a compression method known as 'lossy.' This means that image data is lost in the compression process and a compressed image will not match the original. Unless you optimize the final graphic, you will have a picture that will contain useless data for web browsers. As far as byte size, it will be bigger than it needs to be and take longer to download.

ProJPEG by BoxTop Software is an excellent program that easily optimizes your images, making them smaller, while retaining the sharpness and clarity of the original picture. When you place the final JPEG image into your html documents, you have a crisp, clean graphic product that allows for fast downloading without sacrificing quality.

ProJPEG is a Photoshop compatible plug-in. I tested it in both Photoshop 4.0 LE and Photoshop 5.5 for MACINTOSH and the plug-in worked fine in both versions. Simply drag the ProJPEG plug-in file into your Photoshop plug-in folder. Normally, plug-ins appear in the filter menu of the image editing package but in this case, ProJPEG appears in your file formats folder after you select the 'show all files' feature. It will then appear when you choose the option to save or save as.

THE FEATURES

ProJPEG features a user-friendly preview interface that pops up once the save or save as option is employed.

1. The user can view the original image at 100% quality and compare it to the optimized image. The interface will also show you the uncompressed file size (in numbers) and compare it to the image quality after lossy JPEG compression. You can also zoom the images to have a better look, or if you prefer, you can turn off the 'show' option.

2. The Speed Menu

The interface allows you to see approximate download times for your file at different transmission speeds. This is a helpful feature when deciding the ultimate compression of your JPEG file. Of course, this is just an estimate because many factors determine the download time of a file, such as server load, line noise, and packet latency.

3. ProJPEG offers three check boxes available to optimize your JPEG file. They include Progressive, Better Image Sampling, and Huffman Code.

The Progressive check box allows you to save a JPEG that will display incrementally during download. This is a handy feature, but the user needs to realize that not all html editors have support for progressive JPEG compression.

The Better Image Sampling check box controls the rate of sampling from the original image. Checking it will improve the image quality but will also increase the final file size.

The Huffman Code Optimization check box improves image compression by generating a custom code table for the data sampled and transformed by the JPEG process. The option increases the time to regeneration previews and save files but you should always choose this option when compressing your JPEGS.

4. The File Size Line

The file size line shows the absolute file size of the compressed JPEG as well as the estimated download time for the file at the chosen speed.

5. The Quality Text Box and Slider

This feature is the best part of ProJPEG's package. The user can govern the quality of JPEG compression by moving the slider from zero to one hundred. This gives you perfect control over the final JPEG compression and file size.

6. The Smoothing Text Box and Slider

The smoothing text box and slider gives the user control over the smoothing process which reduces noise in images. By employing it, you can produce smaller files, but you do have to be aware at a particular point, the image quality will begin to degrade and look out of focus and fuzzy.

7. The Presets Menu

If you are like me, you generally prefer to compress your images to a standard default, but don't want to have to reset the numbers each time you work with a new file. ProJPEG solves this annoyance by offering a presets menu that remembers your 'last settings.' You can also save your favorite preset and call it up when a particular circumstance arises.

8. The Target Text Box

ProJPEG allows you to define the kilobyte file size setting by entering the numbers in the Target text box. It works in conjunction with the Find button. By clicking the Find button, you can calculate the needed compression parameters to produce the file to your desired size.

ProJPEG supports actions in Photoshop 4.0 or greater for users who need to automate tasks and complete batch processing of files. Check your Photoshop documentation for more information.

ProJPEG doesn't take up much room on your hard drive and doesn't dip deeply into your memory requirements. I found that it did a fine job of demonstrating the company's impressive claims. In fact, I compared its file compression features to those integrated into expensive image editing software packages such as Macromedia Fireworks 2.0 and found that it allowed for more control of the final file size. For the price of $49.95, it is a great deal for the serious artist and the weekend hobbyist. I highly recommend it, especially if you want to retain the quality of your images but want them to download quickly from the World Wide Web.

BoxTop Software

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