Since its introduction with Photoshop 5.5,
Save for Web has become an indispensable part of the
workflow for many of us who prepare images for the Web. Yet
there are three aspects of Save for Web that seem to have
been overlooked by many.
Save for Web allows you to see how your
image will appear when viewed with various browsers and with
different operating systems. Rather than having to transfer
the image to another computer to see what the Mac or Windows
folks will see, you can simulate in Save for Web. And
because there are differences in how browsers display
images, Save for Web allows you to actually open the image
being optimized right in any browser that you have installed
on your computer.
#1 THE PREVIEW MENU
Located near the top of the Save for Web window, this menu
holds three sets of options. When you're in 2-up or 4-up
views, these settings are applied only to the
currently-active pane in the window.
The first choice is whether or not to view
the optimization preview with Browser Dither. Browser Dither
simulates the look of the image when viewed on a computer
whose monitor is set to 8-bit color. This is rare these
days, with the vast majority of people on the Web surfing
with monitors set to at least thousands of colors.
However, some older laptops with screens
limited to 256 colors are still in use. Browser Dither is
active when a checkmark is shown next to it in the menu.
Next is a group of options that controls how
you preview colors in the Save for Web window's active pane.
Uncompensated color is exactly that – the color values in
the file are presented to you as they are, to be viewed with
your monitor settings. The Standard Windows Color and
Standard Macintosh Color choices show the often-substantial
difference in gamma (brightness) between the two systems.
The relative darkness of the Windows
platform, or if you prefer, the relative lightness of the
Macintosh platform, is evident when the shadow areas of the
images are compared head-to-head.
When an image is color managed (that is, a
color profile has been embedded in the image), Save for Web
allows you to optimize with that profile. Select the option
Use Document Color Profile.
All-in-all, it is certainly worthwhile to at
least preview how your image will look on both major
platforms. Generally speaking, though, using the image's
color profile is perhaps your best choice.
#2 THE SELECT BROWSER MENU
Just as you can take a look at the difference between
Macintosh and Windows gamma, so to can you preview how your
image will differ when viewed in Internet Explorer and
Netscape Navigator. Use the menu at the bottom of the Save
for Web window to select the browser with which you want to
preview.
The browser will actually launch and you'll
see the image in the browser's window. In addition, both
Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator windows will show
the file optimization information.
The choice of Other allows you to navigate
on your available drives and disks to find a browser that's
not listed. When you installed Photoshop and ImageReady, the
installer took a quick look around your hard drive and
located all of the available Web browsers to add them to the
list. If you've changed or added Web browsers since, you can
include them. To add a browser to the menu, simply add an
alias (shortcut) for the browser into the folder Helpers>
Preview In, which is found inside your Photoshop folder.
(And here's a little tip: You can put a shortcut of your Web
design program in the Helpers> Preview In folder, too.)
#3 THE SAVE FOR WEB PREFERENCES
When Photoshop starts acting up, when things don't seem to
be working right, the first step is usually to replace the
preferences file. However, when Save for Web starts
misbehaving, that won't do you a bit of good. Save for Web,
as if it was actually a separate program, creates its own
preferences. For Photoshop 6 on the Mac, you'll find that
file inside the System folder's Preferences folder, with the
name Adobe Save for Web 2.0 Prefs. Photoshop 5.5 users on
the Mac will find Adobe Save for Web 1.0 Prefs inside the
same folder, not with the Photoshop settings. (Note: If you
use Adobe Illustrator 9, be aware that its version of Save
for Web creates a separate set of preferences, which are
stored inside the same folder as the Illustrator preferences
file. That version is called Adobe Save for Web AI 1.0
Prefs.)
On the Windows side, things aren't so easy.
In order to maintain the "Windows compliant" label, Adobe
must have Save for Web (and ImageReady) write preferences to
the Windows Registry file. Editing this file can lead to
serious problems with your system. However, if it is
necessary, here are two pieces of advice: First, before you
do anything else, make a copy of the Registry and save it in
a safe place. Second, refer to the documentation (Help) for
your version of Windows before attempting to edit the file.