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I have tried to make a roundup of the available plugins for better compressing images for the Web, in Gif or JPG formats.
Some notes first :
- I will not mention here the various plugins aiming at creating buttons, drop shadows and bevels with the Web in mind ;
- I have not considered the following :
JPEG It !, way too bad ;
PicPress, no preview option ; and
RDG DitherBox, now part of ImageReady and not
commercialized anymore ;
- I will not speak of the PNG format (not a de facto standard yet, now supported by PS5, and requiring a
freeware plugin
in earlier versions);
- There is a demo available for each of these plugins ;
- Each plugin is linked to its review on my site.
Now for the plugins :
- Auto F/X Webvise Totality : a set of utilities for dithering, JPG and GIF compression, plus watermarking.
- Pros
: the ability to switch from one plugin to the other without exiting the plugin (and thus to chose more easily between GIF and JPG, and a good support for transparency, with the possibility of mark several colors as transparent. Also an excellent batch function, and the possibility to select colors to shield from compression.
- Cons : by far the slowest plugin in this category...
- Boxtop ColorSafe : a little utility that fills your selection with a pattern of websafe colors to avoid dithering effects when images are viewed on limited monitors.
- Pros
: does the job perfectly ;
- Cons : does not suggest patterns by itself, so it can be very time- consuming to use it... ;
- Boxtop ImageVice : helps you reducing the number of colors used in an image.
- Pros
: useful utility to use before exporting images ;
- Cons : little preview window so that you cannot really see where you are going, and tiny buttons ;
- Boxtop ProJPEG : a standard JPG export plugin, with all the options you would expect.
- Pros
: fast preview, good result ;
- Cons : format plugin, so you need to flatten your layers before exporting, and a limited number of options;
- Boxtop PhotoGif : probably the best GIF plugin around, with its possibility to precisely define palettes.
- Pros
: a perfect support for custom palettes and transparency ;
- Cons : a bit too hard to learn, works in two steps;
- Cyberview Image 4 : the ultimate for JPG compression, with support for Q Tables, the possibility to use different compression settings within the same image.
- Pros
: Q Tables and the number of options, plus the excellent preview system ;
- Cons : too many options so it can be tricky to learn to use it, and to use it on a lot of images;
-
Digital Frontiers HVS JPG : the only other plugin to let you play with the Q Tables;
- Pros
: support for Q Tables ;
- Cons : slow preview, only one window makes it hard to compare the original and the compressed images ;
-
Digital Frontiers HVS ColorGif : all the options you may wish for Gif export;
- Pros
: you can adjust gamma depending on the platform you have in mind ;
- Cons : you cannot define your own palettes, preview is not fast enough;
- Ulead Smartsaver : includes export functions for both JPG and GIF, with standard settings each time;
- Pros
: you can batch images, really easy to learn and use, perfect preview options, can work as standalone form Windows Explorer;
- Cons : the result is not always perfect, the absence of "professional" settings make it hard to get the best results on large images, a bit too slow to load with big images.
- Vimas JPEG 2 : a standard JPG plugin, with the usual settings ;
- Pros
: its capacity to automatically create thumbnails of the compressed images ;
- Cons : not many options, a slow preview.
Finally, I think the best choices are :
- If you are looking for something standard and easy to use but that gives good results, Ulead´s Smartsaver ;
- and if you need professional results (and are ready to spend some time and money on it), Boxtop´s PhotoGif and Cyberview Image 4.
Also note the existence of two freeware plugins of interest :
- Xynthetic Webscrub is a good tool for dithering your image ;
- and
Filesize Reducer from
Harry's VideoRave set, that automatically reduces the number of colors used in an image.
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