Best software for preping photos for the web ...

[Willee]

Adobe ImageReady is IMHO the best software for getting photos ready for the web.
You can adjust the size, crop, shift balance, adjust brightness and contrast, and best of all ... adjust the file size of the photo.

Lets say you have your photo 800 pixels wide and adjusted just like you want it.
However, the photo is 125K in size and the web site you are posting it to only allows 100K.
No Problem ... ImageReady will allow you to adjust the quality to just under 100K file size.
For a computer screen you will be amazed as to how low you can go and still have great detail. That is a big aid in keeping your photo the size you want it and the file size under the limit.

ImageReady used to be sold separately but now I think it only comes with PhotoShop.

 

[toolcrazy]

Photoshop and Image Ready are one program now, or they are sold as one.

For those who want a good editing program for the web. Adobe Photoshop Elements is much less expensive than Photoshop. I have Photoshop and Image Ready, but I always used Elements. And now that I'm getting more serious about my Photography, I have started using Adobe Lightroom. But, unfortunately, it is out of the price range of the hobbyist.

I know a lot of people use those free image editing programs, but I find most of them don't have the quality image processing of the better programs. The images that I see downsized with them are grainy and look digitized.

 

[rjwolfe3]

I use an open source version of Photoshop called Gimp2. It's free and easy to use. I wish I could afford Photoshop but even with my student discount it's out of my price range. Someday though.

 

[el_d]

I like Adobe Elements, Couldnt afford the full version of photoshop, but Elemant does the job very well.