Photo book and JPG size

[srock]

I am making several photo books with mixbook and want to get the best resolution I can.

Mixbook accepts JPGs up to 15mb. I am making 14x11 books with many single page and occasionally double page spreads. I usually edit in raw. I then export/resize in on1 (although I also have gigapixel and PL8). I am often exporting 50-100 photos at a time (one at a time export is not something I want to do.

All of my resizing programs give me a target size (ie 14 or 15 Mb) but the result at least in ON1 is photos which range from 9 to 15 Mb in size.

Any suggestions about how to get my pix closer to the max size allowed by Mixbook?

BTW I am assuming that there is a difference between a 9MB JPG at quality 100 and a 15MB jpg at quality 100. Is that true or am I making myself crazy for nothing.

Any help appreciated

 

[tbcass]

I am making several photo books with mixbook and want to get the best resolution I can.

Mixbook accepts JPGs up to 15mb. I am making 14x11 books with many single page and occasionally double page spreads. I usually edit in raw. I then export/resize in on1 (although I also have gigapixel and PL8). I am often exporting 50-100 photos at a time (one at a time export is not something I want to do.

All of my resizing programs give me a target size (ie 14 or 15 Mb) but the result at least in ON1 is photos which range from 9 to 15 Mb in size.

Any suggestions about how to get my pix closer to the max size allowed by Mixbook?

BTW I am assuming that there is a difference between a 9MB JPG at quality 100 and a 15MB jpg at quality 100. Is that true or am I making myself crazy for nothing.

Any help appreciated

I would suggest you try different JPEG compressions and view at 100% on your computer. Keep using more and more compression until you can see a loss of image quality. You'll be surprised at how much compression you can use before IQ is effected. 100 is not necessary.

 

[Kaj E]

The size of a JPG depends on the content of the image. More detail causes larger files. Good luck with getting automated mass conversion of jpegs to one file size.

--
Kind regards
Kaj
http://www.pbase.com/kaj_e
WSSA member #13
It's about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.- Elliott Erwitt

 

[dj_paige]

Megabytes of a JPG export is not a good indicator of quality. In fact, it can be a very misleading indicator of quality.

If you really want to judge the quality of the JPG export, look at it with your own eyes and decide if there is a quality problem. If you can't see a quality problem, then go ahead and use the photo.

--
Paige Miller

 

[dj_paige]

I am making several photo books with mixbook and want to get the best resolution I can.

Mixbook accepts JPGs up to 15mb. I am making 14x11 books with many single page and occasionally double page spreads. I usually edit in raw. I then export/resize in on1 (although I also have gigapixel and PL8). I am often exporting 50-100 photos at a time (one at a time export is not something I want to do.

All of my resizing programs give me a target size (ie 14 or 15 Mb) but the result at least in ON1 is photos which range from 9 to 15 Mb in size.

Any suggestions about how to get my pix closer to the max size allowed by Mixbook?

BTW I am assuming that there is a difference between a 9MB JPG at quality 100 and a 15MB jpg at quality 100. Is that true or am I making myself crazy for nothing.

Any help appreciated

I would suggest you try different JPEG compressions and view at 100% on your computer. Keep using more and more compression until you can see a loss of image quality. You'll be surprised at how much compression you can use before IQ is effected. 100 is not necessary.

I agree 100%. Looking at the image is the way to determine quality. Megabytes of the file is not the way to determine quality.

 

[ishwanu]

BTW I am assuming that there is a difference between a 9MB JPG at quality 100 and a 15MB jpg at quality 100. Is that true or am I making myself crazy for nothing.

In addition to the quality setting, three things affect JPEG file size: pixel count, image content, and noise level.

If that comparison is for two versions of the same same scene with the same noise level, the difference has to be in pixel count, so the larger file will retain more detail. I doubt that the difference could be discerned in a 14x11 inch photo book, though.

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

I am making several photo books with mixbook and want to get the best resolution I can.

Mixbook accepts JPGs up to 15mb. I am making 14x11 books with many single page and occasionally double page spreads. I usually edit in raw. I then export/resize in on1 (although I also have gigapixel and PL8). I am often exporting 50-100 photos at a time (one at a time export is not something I want to do.

All of my resizing programs give me a target size (ie 14 or 15 Mb) but the result at least in ON1 is photos which range from 9 to 15 Mb in size.

Any suggestions about how to get my pix closer to the max size allowed by Mixbook?

BTW I am assuming that there is a difference between a 9MB JPG at quality 100 and a 15MB jpg at quality 100. Is that true or am I making myself crazy for nothing.

Any help appreciated

I think you're worrying about something that's a non-issue. For the resolution needed to make an 11x14" print, or even a spread over two 11x14" pages, a JPEG substantially smaller than 15 MB will almost always be able to provide excellent quality. If your fully-prepared files are 9 to 15 MB, then JPEG compression is not likely to be a limiting factor.

As others have said, JPEG file size depends not only on pixel dimensions and degree of compression (which is adjustable in most decent software), but also image content and noise (or lack thereof). Nevertheless, IME there are almost no images where a JPEG with 10:1 compression can't provide an excellent version.

What does that mean for file sizes? An 11x14" image at 300 ppi with 2.33% bleed in each direction (for borderless printing) contains 14.5 MP. Uncompressed but at 3 bytes (R, G, and B) per pixel, that's 41.5 MB.* At 10:1 compression, that's 4.15 MB. Or for a two-page spread, that's 83.1 MB uncompressed or 8.31 MB with 10:1 compression. So if the files you're getting are 9+ MB, then the compression is at most 4.6:1 for single-page images and 9.2:1 for two-page spreads. If there's an image-quality problem, then the cause is almost certainly something other than JPEG compression.

*Usually 1 MP really means 1 mp, i.e. million pixels; but 1 MB = 2^20 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes.

 

[srock]

This is quite helpful. Thank you all!

Steve

 

[ChuckB]

I hope this is relevant. In LR I can limit the output by giving it a maximum size, e.g. 15MB. Does ON have such an option?

 

[mfinley]

I've used them for many photo books over the years and I do not recall having any issue with having to limit my file sizes to 15MB.

I thought maybe something has changed, but I just opened an old project and uploaded a 25MB file inserted it on a page, saved and then hit the order book button and have seen no warnings or denials over the 25mb photo.

 

[dj_paige]

I've used them for many photo books over the years and I do not recall having any issue with having to limit my file sizes to 15MB.

I thought maybe something has changed, but I just opened an old project and uploaded a 25MB file inserted it on a page, saved and then hit the order book button and have seen no warnings or denials over the 25mb photo.

Since most (all?) photo books that I am aware of place restrictions on MB (megabytes) of a photo and not MP (megapixels), I am wondering if you have confused the two.

 

[mfinley]

I've used them for many photo books over the years and I do not recall having any issue with having to limit my file sizes to 15MB.

I thought maybe something has changed, but I just opened an old project and uploaded a 25MB file inserted it on a page, saved and then hit the order book button and have seen no warnings or denials over the 25mb photo.

Since most (all?) photo books that I am aware of place restrictions on MB (megabytes) of a photo and not MP (megapixels), I am wondering if you have confused the two.

Is there something I'm missing here?

 

[ishwanu]

I hope this is relevant. In LR I can limit the output by giving it a maximum size, e.g. 15MB. Does ON have such an option?

ON1 Photo RAW? No.

 

[ishwanu]

I've used them for many photo books over the years and I do not recall having any issue with having to limit my file sizes to 15MB.

I thought maybe something has changed, but I just opened an old project and uploaded a 25MB file inserted it on a page, saved and then hit the order book button and have seen no warnings or denials over the 25mb photo.

I have no idea, but this page states the 15MB size as a 'guideline' rather than a limit:

What is the recommended file format & quality specs for my photos?

Photos are recommended to be in jpg jpeg or heic format We also allow png files however we recommend photos be in jpg ornb

help.mixbook.com

 

[srock]

On1 has an entire resize module with multiple ways of resizing including a max file size. I resized a batch of 100 photos to 15MB max and it appears that meant a maximum of 15 MB with sizes ranging from 9 to 15. In a single case use you can export directly to a file size.

 

[mfinley]

I've used them for many photo books over the years and I do not recall having any issue with having to limit my file sizes to 15MB.

I thought maybe something has changed, but I just opened an old project and uploaded a 25MB file inserted it on a page, saved and then hit the order book button and have seen no warnings or denials over the 25mb photo.

I have no idea, but this page states the 15MB size as a 'guideline' rather than a limit:

https://help.mixbook.com/en_us/what-format-should-my-photos-be-in-HkDRpFlR7

I think the OP is creating problems for himself that aren't necessary

 

[ishwanu]

I hope this is relevant. In LR I can limit the output by giving it a maximum size, e.g. 15MB. Does ON have such an option?

ON1 Photo RAW? No.

On1 has an entire resize module with multiple ways of resizing including a max file size.

Can you post a screen shot from Photo RAW showing a maximum file size option?

I resized a batch of 100 photos to 15MB max and it appears that meant a maximum of 15 MB with sizes ranging from 9 to 15.

Can you post a screen shot from Photo RAW showing a maximum file size option?

In a single case use you can export directly to a file size.

I can't set a maximum (or minimum) file size in Photo RAW. It just shows an estimated file size based on other choices. Lots of tools have that.



You originally asked for something that could export a batch of files to a specific file size of 14-15MB. Because different image content will produce different file sizes, this feature won't do that unless you look at the display for every export and make any necessary adjustments.

If you're now saying you're able to do what you asked about in your original post, why did you ask for a different tool?

 

[srock]

I think those who early on replied answered all my outstanding questions. Indeed, file sizes in the 9-15MB range will give me the quality I need as long as I have properly edited and sharpened the JPEG for print.

I am good

Steve