Speedy Online Portfolios.

This article offers tips for optimizing online portfolio images on Macintosh computers. All online portfolio images, whether project artwork or interface designs, should be optimized--that is, transformed into a Web-readable format that balance image quality and size. The easiest way to optimize is to apply a preset in Adobe Photoshop's Save For Web window. The optimization method should depend on the image's ideal final file type. To determine the proper format quickly, open a file, go to Save For Web, and click on the 4-Up tab. For each optimized display window, select a different default preset from the Preset menu: JPEG, ONG-8 128 Dithered or GIF 64 Dithered, for instance. The more colors a PNG or GIF file contains, the larger its file size. When Photoshop optimizes a file, it decreases colors by determining how frequently each color appears. As you decrease the number of colors in the palette, the software throws out the least-used ones. The trouble comes when you have a print project with spot color. The standard optimization quickly eliminates critical colors. The standard optimization quickly eliminates critical colors. To keep the spot colors, you have to use a bigger-than-necessary palette. You can prevent this palette bloat by locking spot colors. INSET: Faster Flash.