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Importing Images and Exporting for Web - Images: Japanese
Hey there, everyone!
Next up, let's try importing an image into Photoshop. Go ahead and grab any image you have on hand. JPEG, PNG, and GIF are all fine. If you'd like to download one to use, click here — it's a photo of a cat.
To open an image, go to 'File' in the menu bar at the top, then select 'Open', and choose the file you want. This works the same on both Windows and macOS. If you prefer a keyboard shortcut, Windows users can press 'Ctrl' + 'O' and macOS users can press 'command' + 'O' to bring up the file selection dialog.
You can also open image files by drag and drop, but pay attention to where you drop them. If you already have an image open and you drag a new file onto the canvas area, it will be added as a layer (object) on top of the existing file. To open it as a new file instead, drag it onto the tab area.
We'll cover layers in an upcoming article.
Let's look at the drop zones with a screenshot. If you have an image already open and drag a file onto the area shown by the red circle below:
This is what happens:
So if you want to open an image as a new file, drag it onto the red circle area shown below instead:
This one's easy to get wrong, so keep it in mind.
That's how opening image files works. Now let's try opening an image from the clipboard.
Open this link in your browser, right-click the image, and select 'Copy Image'. The image is now on your clipboard. Switch to Photoshop, go to 'File', and select 'New'. You should see 'Clipboard' as the Document Type option.
Click 'OK' to create the file. Then press 'Ctrl' + 'V' (Windows) or 'command' + 'V' (macOS) to paste. The copied image should appear right away. This is a handy shortcut to remember.
Now let's look at saving and exporting the image. To save it as a Photoshop file, go to 'File' and select 'Save'. The keyboard shortcut is 'Ctrl' + 'S' on Windows or 'command' + 'S' on macOS. This saves it as a Photoshop document. The file extension for Photoshop files is '.psd' — keep that in mind.
To export as a web asset in JPEG, PNG, or GIF format, go to 'File' and select 'Save for Web'. This opens the web export dialog, where you can configure your output for each format. Let's go through them.
For details on JPEG, PNG, and GIF formats, see this article.
Starting with JPEG: set the dropdown in the upper right to 'JPEG'. Everything will update to show JPEG export options.
There are several settings here, but the key ones are the quality preset dropdown and the 'Quality' field. These two are linked and control JPEG compression. For web assets, aim for around '60' as a starting point.
The file size is shown in the lower left (something like '16.2K'), so use that as a guide while comparing quality. Loading a page full of heavy images slows things down, so try to keep the file size small while maintaining acceptable quality. Use the '2-Up' or '4-Up' tabs in the upper left to compare different export settings side by side.
The 'Progressive' option below lets you create a progressive JPEG. A standard (baseline) JPEG loads from top to bottom, while a progressive JPEG shows a low-quality version of the whole image first, then progressively sharpens. Modern internet speeds make most JPEGs load near-instantly anyway, so progressive is rarely used anymore. Also, some older browsers have had issues rendering progressive JPEGs, so leaving it unchecked is generally the safer bet.
Checking 'Optimized' removes data that the human eye can't perceive anyway, trimming a small amount of file size. The difference is minor, so it doesn't really matter whether you check it or not.
'Embed Color Profile' lets you include absolute color space information in the image. While different displays, OSes, and applications can render colors slightly differently, embedding a color profile helps minimize those differences. That said, if 'Convert to sRGB' below it is checked, color variations are minimal on most modern devices, so embedding the profile isn't strictly necessary.
The 'Metadata' section below that handles copyright information embedded in the image. For typical web asset creation, you won't need to touch this — but if you do want to embed copyright data, this is where you'd do it.
Further below are image size controls — these appear for JPEG, GIF, and PNG alike, and work the same way across all three. The chain link icon next to the size fields locks the aspect ratio, so resizing scales proportionally. If you want to change width and height independently, click the chain icon to break the link.
The 'Quality' resampling option below that: 'Bicubic' is a solid general-purpose choice. This setting controls the algorithm used when scaling the image, and different methods produce different results in terms of edge sharpness and smoothness. Use the '2-Up' view to compare with the original while adjusting. The '100%' zoom control in the lower left lets you zoom in for a closer comparison when needed.
Next, let's look at exporting as GIF. Select 'GIF' from the dropdown in the upper right to switch to GIF options.
GIF isn't used much these days, so you may not need this often. There are various settings here, but selecting 'Restrictive (Web)' and exporting as-is will usually do the job. 'Restrictive (Web)' limits the palette to colors that render consistently across both Windows and macOS. The 'Colors' setting can be reduced to cut down file size significantly, but with modern internet speeds, a GIF loads in an instant anyway — so this tweak is rarely necessary. The only time you'd want to reduce colors is when creating very small files for older mobile devices.
For 'PNG-8', the same applies — 'Restrictive (Web)' is all you need.
For 'PNG-24', just check 'Transparency' and 'Convert to sRGB' and export — that's all you need.
The 'Interlaced' option found in GIF, PNG-8, and PNG-24 causes the image to display progressively as it downloads. In the ISDN era, interlacing was common so users could get a rough preview of an image before it fully loaded — but with today's fast internet, images load so quickly that interlacing serves no real purpose. On top of that, enabling interlacing slightly increases file size, so leave it unchecked.
That covers importing images and exporting them for the web. In the next article, we'll go over image resolution and canvas size. See you then!
This article was written by Sakurama.
Author's beloved small mammal |
桜舞 春人 Sakurama HarutoA Tokyo-based programmer who has been creating various content since the ISDN era, with a bit of concern about his hair. A true long sleeper who generally feels unwell without at least 10 hours of sleep. His dream is to live a life where he can sleep as much as he wants. Loves games, sports, and music. Please share some hair with him. |
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