Thumbnails for Illustration Friday
Thank you for all your wonderful comments on my Illustration Friday entry yesterday!! You Really Made My Day!! Beverly said she had an entry ready to go but got stuck on making the thumbnail for the challenge. Obviously I would love to see her entry and would love to see Bev enter this challenge!! So I am going to share how I make the thumbnail … in-Photoshop there are usually multiple ways to do things … here is the way I do it. It takes a lot longer to tell how to do it (and read about it) than it does to just do it .. so please give it a try! Please forgive the large files … I thought want to make sure you can see the details to be able to follow.
Selection
First, I am bet you know the selection tool … the tool that allows you to choose a part of your image … it is circled in red. Choose this tool.
Fixed Aspect
Set it to the fixed aspect ratio … highlighted in red … and set it to 1 to 1 ratio. This makes it so you will have a perfect square as you make your thumbnail. Now go ahead and choose some part of the image … whatever part you want to use as the thumbnail that people will see.
Crop
Now that you have chosen the part of the image you want to save, go to Image on the top bar and go down and choose crop … highlighted in red.
Image Size
Next we will set the pixel size for our thumbnail. Illustration Friday has a pixel size of 50 by 50 … so that is what we will choose. Go to Image again on the bar across the top and go down and choose Image Size.
Set Pixel Size
A window will come up after you choose Image Size. It is good to set the resolution to 72 pixels/inch for the web. (Lower red highlight) Some people may use a slightly different number … but 72 is fine. This makes an image “lighter” for the web. For printing the resolution would be much higher, but for the web setting this number to 72 helps a page load faster.
Now … it is time for that 50 by 50 pixel that is their standard. The upper red highlight shows the pixels in the image. Here it is important to set 50 height and 50 width because that is Illustration Friday’s specification. Now you can see what we cropped the image to a square … this way it is easy to set the size to 50 by 50. Then press OK.
Save for the Web
Next we Save for the Web. The first time I did Illustration Friday I was hoping I could just upload a 50 by 50 jpeg … but it was a larger file than their specifications and it wouldn’t upload. So we now go to File on the top bar and go down to Save for the Web … highlighted in red.
Set Jpeg
It will open up into a big window like this. For a regular image, you will choose jpeg … and high is good. I use the default of Optimized checked off and Quality to 60. These are highlighted in red to help you find them. If your file has transparency, you will probably want to use gif.
Save
Now the Save box will come up. You want to make sure you like its name. For the web, there are no blanks in names … Save for the Web automatically puts “-” into between names. Choose where you want to save it and remember that. When you go to upload your thumbnail, you will, of course, need to find it again.
This was done in Photoshop CS2 …. I think you will be able to follow this .. even if you are using a different version. These are not the new fancy tools. I sure hope this was helpful to you!! I apologize again for slow download times for so many images!! Please let me know if you have questions.
It was so weird using the program to do what I was teaching you to do … all these images went through this process also (except resizing to 50 by 50). Enjoy and please let me know how it goes!! I am looking forward to YOUR Illustration Friday!
Golden Glow, Digital © Diane Clancy
~ Diane Clancy
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Diane Clancy creates vibrant paintings that feature color and vision to inspire and uplift people. Says Diane, "I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to express myself through painting. I love that people say my artwork enhances their lives."
January 30th, 2008 at 8:51 am
This is a great tutorial, thanks for sharing it.
January 30th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Diane, this is so very helpful. I cannot wait to go and try it! Thank you!
..and, Golden Glow is amazing!
January 30th, 2008 at 10:54 am
This has made my day. How very kind!! I will be using this very detailed and helpful set of instructions shortly, and I am also going to pay my money and get onto photoshop so that I can try and make the pictures I have ideas for but can’t actually draw. I still haven’t forgotten about the Tessa commission, and will be trying to get through to you shortly. Sadly my computer skills are a little limited so this may take some doing!
January 30th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Hi, Diane,
Thanks for the kind words on my “Antiquity’s Art” ACEOs. I’ve “hearted” your shop too (you’re right — Etsians are everywhere!). Your work is great, and I LOVE “Conundrum 1″. Gorgeous!
January 30th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Diane! Golden Glow is gorgeous! and you are so very sweet to share your tutorial, It means nothing to me, unfortunately ( Waaaay too technical, I’m rubbish on the computer! ) but I know that a lot of people will appreciate the effort that you have gone to.
You are very kind and generous.
Nicola xx
January 30th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I skip over all the technical stuff and admire Golden Glow instead. Not that I don’t appreciate all the effort you make to teach people how to do these things, but it is wasted on me. Instead, I will just be an admirer of your artwork. I think that is good enough.
Having said that, I must comment on the fact that you still seem to be a very busy woman, giving tutorials here and doing artwork and God only knows what else you are doing. Please take good care of yourself and don’t do too much.
xoxox
January 30th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Diane, you are so kind to help educate others. It takes a lot of time to do what you do and your efforts are greatly appreciated.
February 2nd, 2008 at 12:56 pm
OMG OMG thank you soooooooooooo much for this!! Some weeks I get the thumbnail right, other weeks I cannot get it less than 12k file size and could never figure out what to do! Thank you for this tutorial!!
miracles,
k-
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:38 am
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.
May 16th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
hi
i’m so glad that i found this article. that post was so nice. thanks again i signed up to this site.
are you planning to write similar posts?
December 12th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
i am a voluntary designer, possibly you would like to show some of my images? i think it would be fun and fit on your page
absolutely admire your blog! write me a e-mail please in case you want to see my pics
April 13th, 2011 at 2:51 pm
It’s laborious to seek out educated people on this topic, but you sound like you realize what you’re talking about! Thanks
April 13th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
It’s hard to seek out educated individuals on this topic, but you sound like you realize what you’re speaking about! Thanks
April 13th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Thanks for putting this together – this can be a great post for those of us with our heads buried while in the keyboard all day.
May 5th, 2011 at 1:50 am
I would do another show and tell. Further down are the links to the earlier parts of this ongoing series about marketing.
May 7th, 2011 at 4:21 am
You have done an impressive job and our whole community will be grateful to you.
May 8th, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Even I can follow this. Thank you, Diane. I have PhotoShop Elements 6, but this looks basic enough to be confident about adapting your directions, if necessary.
May 10th, 2011 at 9:10 am
Here it is important to set 50 height and 50 width because that is Illustration Friday’s specification. Now you can see what we cropped the image to a
May 15th, 2011 at 9:55 pm
The tutorial is really easy to follow. Thanks!
May 20th, 2011 at 9:21 am
I would just like to follow on with what the others have said and say a big thanks for providing an easy to follow tutorial.
Keep up the good work.
Jane,
July 8th, 2011 at 6:04 pm
Love the image! You did a great job with it, keep up the good work.
October 6th, 2011 at 10:03 am
Itˇs actually a nice and helpful piece of information. I am glad that you simply shared this helpful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
January 1st, 2012 at 3:20 pm
i’m so glad that i found this article. that post was so nice. thanks again i signed up to this site.
January 1st, 2012 at 3:23 pm
I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this post. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me to start my own blog now.