I just use the "Save As" method in Photoshop. That saves the photo to my hard drive.
Then, I just look at the resulting file in ACDsee or Windows Explorer, or whatever, and verify the file's size.
It's really easy to check the size of a file prior to uploading it. I leave the file "up" in Photoshop while I just check the file size.
Here's what you see if you're using Windows Explorer (since that's the basic file navigation tool for Windows, we know everyone on a Windows machine has that - I often use ACDSee, but I can't be sure everyone uses that, obviously.
First, the Save As dialog in Photoshop. Note that Photoshop claims the file will be 115.86K. This cracks me up because they give a size to two places past the deicimal, but their accuracy is not good to even two significant figures
Next, I fired up Windows Explorer right on top of Photoshop. No problem, Windows is a multitasking OS
I've navigated to the file in question and highlighted it. Then I "right clicked" on it and got the dialog you see. In that dialog, I've highlighted "properties".
Clicking on "Properties" yields this dialog:
Note that they give you the flie's "Size" and the "Size on disk".
We're interested in the "Size" since the size on disk just takes into account the fact that any given file uses an integer number of disk clusters, so unless you're using disk compression, it will always be larger.
In any case, the "Size" is the number we want, and you'll find that this will always be the same number as PBase reports, too.
Note that this is considerably larger than what Photoshop "predicted". Let that be a lesson to you
Ok, so if the file is oversize, I just do the Save As again with slightly more compression. This is easy as long as you've still got the photo "up" in photoshop. I always test right then and there before closing the photo so that I can "re-save" fast and easy. I go back and forth, checking the file size and resaving as many times as it takes to get it close but not over the limit.
And before too long, you get a "feel" for how "Save As" lies to you about the projected file size and you end up not needing to do as many trials to nail it.
So it's fast and easy to look at the file size on your hard drive before uploading it. I don't think anyone should ever upload a non-checked file since checking the size is so fast and easy.
The size reported by PBase is EXACTLY the size that you'll see when looking at the file with Explorer or ACDSee, or whatever
Pops' method is nice in that you can get a lot finer increments of file size when using "Save for Web". And the ultimate file compression is less because of that and because you are leaving out the EXIF which bloats the file a bit. But I like to have the EXIF in the file to begin with.
Also, if you use Paint Shop Pro for this, it doesn't suffer from these issues.
What is odd to me is that Photoshop's "Save for web" can show you the exact file size accurately before it is used but "Save As" is so far off! Come on, Adobe! Get your act together here
If I've said it once, I've said it a dozen times on here:
Give us a checkbox in the "Save For Web" dialog that lets us leave the EXIF in place. And, for heaven's sake, make the prediction of file size in "Save As" be accurate. This is not rocket science, it's just simple programming here
It really is an oddity that Photoshop, a $300-700 program doesn't get this simple task right.
--
Jim H.
