Neverside

How to get awesome screenshot thumbnails?

I'm using Photoshop Elements 5.
I've got a good screenshot (1130x862) and want to get a high quality thumbnail, like the ones here:
http://www.majesticdesigns.com/portfolio_websites.htm

I've tried it using every option available, but the best I can get is fuzzy.

How can I get crisp, good looking thumbnails?

Thank you!

Gosh, I see awesome looking thumbs on your studio page too
http://studio.neverside.com/

How dey do dat?

Here are a few tips...

1) Crop your screenshot as much as possible... e.g. you don't likely need to show the whole image in the tiny screenshot, but rather feature a representative portion of it. So figure out what part of the image is most important, and crop everything else out. The goal is to keep what's left of the image as big as possible when scaled down.

2) Run the "Unsharp Mask" filter in Photoshop (Filter -> Sharpen -> Unsharp Mask) or something similar in another program or plug-in. The key to sharpening is to give it the right amount - not too much and not too little (so a filter like Unsharp Mask is ideal). When you massively scale something down, tons of details get lost and the result is usually a blurry mess, so sharpening helps bring out what details are left. Really any sharpening will do, but one with control of how much is the best. If you don't have the Unsharp Mask filter, then there's also many standalone sharpening programs (google) and you can also consider getting a free copy of "The Gimp" (google) which is comparable to Photoshop.

3) Save your output image in high enough quality that the compression artifacts don't obscure any important details of the image (e.g. you don't have much to work with, so keep what you have left looking good). Save in moderately compressed JPG or PNG format in most cases.

The images in the Neverside Studio are actually sized and sharpened automatically by a server-side program as they are uploaded to the server.

Hope this helps.

___________________

-- Dave
Neverside Admin

absolutecross.com

Thank you so much. I see that this forum's default is no Subscription...so I changed it to Instant Email.

Thanks again, I'll play with the Unsharp and compression options.