Getting under the 12k limit

[Free Bagel]

Is it just me, or is it really hard to get your sig down under 12k? Any tips out there on how to do so? As you can see from mine, I had to cut a handful of things out, shrink it down, and save it on low quality to get it down there.

Any tips on how to keep these file sizes small?

[deluxe_247]

first off....i can tell you right now that its the explosion in the background thats driving your sig size up...this will explain why a bit:

a few things i generally use for this:

- making the size of the sig smaller...sometimes i have even cut them down to 85x300 to get the quality good enough. obviously the smaller it is, the better quality it will be.

- keep the backgrounds simple...a lot of the cooler effects are really hogs when it comes to KBs. try to keep the stuff going on in the background fairly simple or you will run into big problems when downsizing.

-keep colors fairly similar...ive noticed the more contrasting colors you use, the higher the filesize...especially in the backgrounds since they are a bigger space.

- make sure you use the "save for web" feature...probably the most important thing you can do... if you dont use this option, and just save it as a normal jpeg you will get an insanely worse quality product.

these are just my opinions...others have suggested ways to do it that havent worked for me. really you just have to tinker around with it.

[Cupertino_11]

Bagel, probably the easiest way to do it is find someone's sig that you like then right click it and check the properties. You will be able to see the pixel dimensions there. Open Photoshop (assuming you're using that) and create a new file with those pixel dimensions and keep it at 8-bit RGB. Once you have that it doesn't matter if you put every color of the rainbow in there.....the file size will remain the same. When done with your image, flatten it if you have multiple layers and then "save for web". Choose JPEG with a quality of around 40ish....save and voila!

[Crimedogg32]

first off....i can tell you right now that its the explosion in the background thats driving your sig size up...this will explain why a bit:

a few things i generally use for this:

- making the size of the sig smaller...sometimes i have even cut them down to 85x300 to get the quality good enough. obviously the smaller it is, the better quality it will be.

- keep the backgrounds simple...a lot of the cooler effects are really hogs when it comes to KBs. try to keep the stuff going on in the background fairly simple or you will run into big problems when downsizing.

-keep colors fairly similar...ive noticed the more contrasting colors you use, the higher the filesize...especially in the backgrounds since they are a bigger space.

- make sure you use the "save for web" feature...probably the most important thing you can do... if you dont use this option, and just save it as a normal jpeg you will get an insanely worse quality product.

these are just my opinions...others have suggested ways to do it that havent worked for me. really you just have to tinker around with it.

that is exactly what you need to do to make a high quality sig under 12 KB it maybe even deserves a sticky

[Free Bagel]

Cool guys thanks for the tips.

Size wise I think I'm doing alright, already got the thing down smaller than any others I've seen down at 100x308. I'm definitely using the save for web feature, problem is even though the sig is quite small I had to save it on a really low quality down around 30ish, you can even tell looking at the sig that it's fuzzy, it looks much better when I save it with higher quality.

I'm sure you're right about the explosion taking up all the space, but don't think there's a lot I can do about that. It's really the basis of the idea I had for the sig, playing off the nickname Fason has of C4 and putting in Kaboom or Boom or something with an image of him running someone over. Oh well I'll just have to go with the low quality I guess. I had flattened the layers and all that as well.

Thanks guys.