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Optimize your Images for the Web

If you have signed up for a free Tripawds Blog account, you have been given 25MB of server space for uploading photos, PDF files, etc. This space can be consumed quickly with large image files.

To make the most of your free server space, pay attention to the size of files you upload and understand that anything over 150± kb is often overkill for image display in your blog. We have found that an image size of 400×300 (@ 72 dpi) works well with most blog themes. Another option is to keep your photos hosted on an online photo sharing site like Flick'r or SnapFish. You'll still be able to place the images here on your blog, but the actual digital file is kept on those sites instead of in your Tripawds Blog media library. This can save you from exceeding your upload space allotment. For additional tips, read our post about how to use online photo sharing sites to make the most of your free blog.

Of course, the easiest way to avoid quickly filling your file quota is to upgrade your blog with a Tripawds Supporter subscription. This can be done at any time via the Supporter tab in your blog dashboard. But, for all Tripawds Bloggers – either with free accounts or Supporter subscriptions – who just want to manage images with their own easy to use Media Library, we have some some tips to keep your file sizes down to a minimum.

How to Optimize Photo Sizes for the Web Never upload an image directly from your camera to the web. Original digital photos are too big to publish online, and will use up your file size allotment quickly. To shrink your photo file sizes down, many photo editing software applications have a push-button option that will optimize files for "web" or "e-mail" use. Windows XP and Windows Vista both have this functionality built-in. But to re-size images manually and determine their file size, follow these simple steps:

• Launch your photo imaging software of choice.
• Open your photo and do a “File/Save As” renaming the image so you don't overwrite your original.
• Crop your image to focus on the subject as desired.
• Look for a menu option typically called “Image Size,” “Resize” or “Resample.”
• Change your Resolution size to 72 DPI (Dots Per Inch).
• Change your dimensions to a maximum of 640 pixels wide.
• Click the box to “Constrain Proportions” or “Keep aspect ratio” when changing the image size. This keeps the image from getting distorted when you resize it. When this option is enabled, you just need to enter either the height or width; the other value should adjust automatically.
• Preview the image at 100% and re-size or crop further as desired.
• File sizes from 30 kb to a maximum of 150± kb per image will suffice and use the least space. The smaller the better when putting several files on the same page.
• Save as a JPEG file, with medium compression if given the option.

Keep in mind that these steps apply to any image file you upload to your blog. You cannot crop or re-size images after uploading. A little arithmetic can help put things into perspective. If you upload 1 MB images – 1,000 kb – you may only be able to upload 25 photos. On the other hand, you might be able to upload 500 images at 50 kb each.

But remember, if you don't want to take the extra step to optimize your file sizes, just upgrade your account with Tripawds Supporter subscription, and you can have a full gigabyte of upload space! Simply visit the Supporter tab in your blog dashboard. Upgrading via your dashboard will automatically remove the banner ads from your blog too! Supporters also get plugins for embedding blog videos and much more. We'll talk about all that soon.