[Tutorial] How To Reduce File Sizes For Signature Images

[Stoner81]

Greetings and welcome to my tutorial on how to follow the rules for signature sizes, below is a direct quote of those rules:

We've been hearing from some folks who have long wanted to be able to have images in their signatures, and have decided to give it a try.

We're going to do a trial run of allowing images in signatures. Once we allow this to take place for a while, we'll evaluate whether to allow this on a more long-term basis.

The Rules:

We have enabled the ability for you to link to images for your signature. Please keep the following in mind:

• Images should be no larger than 150 pixels high, and no wider than 450 pixels wide.
• ABSOLUTELY NO ANIMATED IMAGES OR VIDEO OF ANY KIND ARE PERMITTED.
• You may link to one image in your signature.
• Images should be as small as possible (File size).
• Must comply with the Community Guidelines.

If you do not enjoy looking at forum signature images, there is an option under Settings > General Settings to turn off Signatures. This will allow you to not see others' signatures.

Improper signatures can be reported, and the moderation team can take action against those who violate these rules, including disabling the ability for you alone to upload a signature image.

Below are various options to allow you to make your signatures much smaller in file size without losing much (if any) quality of the finished image...

TinyPNG

"TinyPNG uses smart lossy compression techniques to reduce the file size of your PNG files. By selectively decreasing the number of colours in the image, fewer bytes are required to store the data. The effect is nearly invisible but it makes a very large difference in file size!"

Put simply it is simply to Smush It (see below) but this seems to be a bit more stable and give better results according to some, try it for yourself and see what happens.

tinypng.org

Smush-It Provided By Yahoo!

http://www.smush**.com/ysmush.it/

(the url has been blocked due to a swear word within the name so just add "it" at the end )

It is a free service provided by Yahoo! and allows you to greatly reduce the size of uploaded images. The image you upload is only stored for a short time allowing you to re-download it

Below is an example for you...

Before being Smushed (33.10KB).



After being Smushed (16.66KB).



As you can see there is a decent difference between the two so I hope this helps folks out there who are/were struggling in getting their signature images to comply with the forum rules

Adobe Photoshop

For those of you who have Photoshop then you can do it yourself by doing the following.

1. With Photoshop open and your image loaded press "File" and select "Save for Web & Devices" (the image shows Photoshop CS5).



2. Now make the needed changes for the image (make yours look like mine):



3. Now press the "Save" button and choose where to save it and you are done!

Here is a before and after sample of using the Photoshop method:

Before being Photoshopped (91.2KB).



After being Photoshopped (19.4KB).



Paint.net

Another similar option to that of Photoshop is Paint.net which is freely available for download and can be gotten from this link.

Stoner81.

[Stoner81]

Reserved just in case.

Stoner81.

[FranOhmsford]

All well and good but how do I get the image into my signature rather than just the link?

[Stoner81]

https://www.ddo.com/forums/profile.php?do=editsignature

Upload the image to a image hoster such as Tinypic, Photobucket, Imgur, Postimg etc etc then look for the code which has [IMG]your sig link here[/IMG] and copy and paste it in to the signature box. You can preview it then to make sure it comes out looking how you want it to.

Stoner81.

[Stoner81]

Updated the OP to include the modified dimensions for allowed signatures.

Stoner81.