Why resize your images?
Showing your images to their very best on the web is important, particularly if you are in the business of selling art or photography through websites.

Most people now use 1280px or larger screen sizes. To make your photos or art less appealing to image theives, whilst still attractive to the viewer, you should consider keeping the longest dimension between 600 and 800 pixels. For panoramic images you may wish to increase this to 1000 pixels.

NB. The submission guidelines for photography animals plants and nature is that the MINIMUM dimension should be 400 pixels or greater

Why this method produces better results than simpler methods
The method used in the photoshop action set takes advantage of the photoshop resizing algorthm to produce results with minimum information loss and maximum detail. It shows a small but noticeable improvement over 'Unsharp Mask' and 'Smart Sharpen' methods. If used with masking results can be far superior to other methods

How to download and install the action set
The action set can be downloaded here: Web Resize
Installing actions is easy. Save the ATN file anywhere on your computer (although it is best to keep them in the Photoshop Actions folder in the photoshop directory for organisation!) and then launch Photoshop. Open the image you want to work with. Now click on the little arrow button on the top right corner of the actions pallette and select “Load actiUsinon”.

Compatibility
The action set should be compatible with all versions of Adobe Photoshop from CS onwards, it has however only been tested on Photoshop CS4. I am unsure if these actions will work in Elements.

Using the action set
Using the actions should be fairly intuitive. If you are not familiar with actions they are nothing to be worried about. Firstly SAVE YOUR WORK BEFORE APPLYING THE ACTION You dont want to lose the work you just did by not being able to step far enough back in the history pallette! Then just find the action on the actions pallete that you wish to use and press the play button. The result should be very good straight away.

More advanced users may consider making changes to the layer masks to locallly sharpen certain areas.


An example


How the method has been updated since the last release
1. All sharpening adjustments are now in 'Luminosity' mode so that colour changes are no longer an issue.
2. Layer masks are now included to allow the user to reduce the sharpness of certain regions and increase the sharpness of others.
3. Minor changes have been made to the organisational structure and layer naming to make the process more clear
4. More advanced users will now be able to make changes to all the actions at once.
5. More advanced users will also be able to add their own image sizes with greater ease

How to extend this method to a greater range of image sizes
If you wish to create actions for other image sizes it is relatively straightforward, but you will require some prior knowledge of actions.

• Create a new action as part of the set and rename it


• start recording and play "Part 1"


• resize the image to 1.666 times the size of image you want o finish with (for example if you are creating an image with a final size of 600px longest dimension you need to do the initial resize to 1000px)


• Play "Part 2"


• resize the image to the final desired image size


• Play "Part 3"