Sanby

My question, which I have been wondering for a while is, if I have a whole bunch of layers, say 20, but only 2 of them are visible and I save as a .gif or .jpg or something else that flattens the layers, will this make for a bigger file size then if I just had a document with the 2 visible layers?

Wow, that's a long sentence, and maybe a bit confusing, does anyone one know what I mean and do you know the answer?

Sanby

JyNx

I dont know for sure but i do belive that reducing the layers will decrease the file size. But it may not always be possible to do that if there are certain effects you want to create, it may take more layers to achive the outcome...

You can also try merging all or some of the layers so that you end up with one or a few layers containing more things, as opposed to ending up with alot of layers each with small things on it.

Either way works...but if the less layers the smaller the size, I say merge some of the one's you can.

Jynx[confused] [confused]

No Sanby, when you flatten an image it doesn't make any difference how many layers you have. It's the visual image data that determines how large the file will be, not the layers, in this case all the image data in your major work area.

Sanby

Thanks, I just wanted to know. But now I am sure that I dont have bigger file sizes than I need when maiking images fo my site.

Sanby

Blinky2004

The only time having a lot of layers will effect file size, is when you're talking about a Photoshop PSD file. More layers = a larger file size.

But as G said, when you save out your image as a "2D" graphics format -- i.e. bmp, png, gif, jpg, etc... -- then layers are no longer an issue. Once flattened, then image format used will use it's own method of determining how large the file size will be.
And this has nothing to do with multiple layers used in a Photoshop document.

Just remember to "Optimize" the images used for your Website.

Sanby

You mentioned there that when saving images to put on the web I should optimize them. Do you mean file>save for web? because I tried that and I compare d it to the .jpg that was already on the site and the .gif was almost 4 times as large!!

Sanby

Blinky2004

Ya that's what i meant Sanby.

And you'll have to learn a few general rules when it comes to creating images for the Web.

Here... read this article i wrote a while ago on it: Pixel Anatomy 101.

That should help you understand when to save an image as a Jpg, and when to save as a Gif. Plus some way of optimizing images in general.

Sanby

Thanks for that link, it will be helpful.

Sanby