This is a very basic quick start guide for ProJPEG™ 3.0. More detailed documentation can be found in the ProJPEG™ Manual if needed.
1: Installation:
Simply drag ProJPEG™ into Photoshop's plug-ins folder. ProJPEG™ will be available the next time you launch Photoshop as "BoxTop ProJPEG" in the format menu of both the open and save as dialogs in Photoshop. It does not matter what sub-folder you place ProJPEG™ into within the plug-ins folder, but the typical place for file format plug-ins like ProJPEG™ in Photoshop is the File Formats folder within the Plug-ins folder.
ProJPEG™ is a file format plug-in and will appear in the format menu in Photoshop's open and save as dialogs as "BoxTop ProJPEG". You will need to check the "Show all formats" option to access this menu when opening files, but normally that is not needed. Photoshop will pick a default method to open JPEG files for you when you double click on a file to open it from the Finder.
Note: ProJPEG™ now requires a PowerPC and will not function on 68k based Macs or with 68k versions of Photoshop running on PowerPC Macs. You can tell if you have a PPC or 68K version of Photoshop installed by looking at the About Photoshop About dialog.
2: General usage:
When opening files ProJPEG™ works transparently. Photoshop will automatically chose it as the default method for opening all JPEG files. No special action needs to be taken, but to use ProJPEG™ specifically to open a file, select the open menu in Photoshop and after checking the "Show all Formats" checkbox to activate the format menu, select "BoxTop ProJPEG" from the formats menu before OK'ing the open dialog. Photoshop will then attempt to read any file with ProJPEG™.
To save a file using ProJPEG™, select the "Save as..." menu in Photoshop, then in the save as dialog, select "BoxTop ProJPEG" from the formats menu and click OK. The ProJPEG™ options dialog will then be show for you to set compression parameters.
Minimally, you should adjust the quality slider to the desired amount while taking note of the image preview for quality and the file size display for final file size. This is the absolute and accurate file size of you JPEG file.
It is correct, but the Finder may be incorrect if you select "Get Info..." on the file afterwards. The Finder shows two numbers for file size explained below.
The first and larger number displayed to the left in the Finder's Info dialog is the allocation block size of the file. That is the amount of space allocated to hold the file on your hard disk but not all of that space is actually used by the file.
The second and smaller number displayed to the right is the combined size of the file's data and resource forks. This number is more accurate than the first the Finder shows, but still not accurate as far as a JPEG is concerned because any data saved in the resource fork of the file is not part of the JPEG and will never be transferred to or by your web server. It is Photoshop specific information such as custom icons, image previews, and last window position while you were editing.
If you want to see the same number that ProJPEG™ shows you for file size in the Finder just to reassure yourself that it's accurate, you can use GIF Prep to strip the resource fork from the both GIF and JPEG files. Then the numbers will match. You don't need to do this, but you can if you want. Files will take up less space on your hard disk with their resource forks stripped, but it makes no difference as far as the Web is concerned.
GIF Prep is included in the ProJPEG™ download, but if you need to obtain it separately it can be downloaded from http://www.boxtopsoft.com/Download/ and is freeware.
3: Tips for best results:
At the factory defaults ProJPEG™ typically outperforms Adobe's JPEG at default settings. If you just want to click the button, you can click the button. However, all images can be saved using more aggressive compression settings than the defaults.
You should take advantage of the interactivity and feedback provided by ProJPEG™ to find the best settings for each individual image. JPEG compression will vary image by image.
4: After ProJPEG™:
Optimizing images is only half the solution for best Web page performance. Your HTML needs to be optimized as well for the fastest pages possible. Overhead in HTML syntax slows down things more than you realize. It can easily add another 30% delay on complex pages.
For the fastest page possible, you should optimize your HTML with Mizer™, the same tool we use to speed up our Web site even more. You can learn more about Mizer™ from:
http://www.antimonysoftware.com
5: Answers and help:
Questions about ProJPEG™ and other BoxTop Software, Inc. tools should be addressed to: info@boxtopsoft.com
ProJEPG™ is Copyright 1995-98 BoxTop Software Inc. All rights reserved. ProJPEG™ is a Trade Mark of BoxTop Software Inc., which may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other trademarks are recognized as the properties of their respective holders. ProJPEG™ is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.
Document published: 7/7/98
Copyright 1998 BoxTop Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
