paper file size HELP!!!!

[PRINCESSLALA]

I'm trying to create a set of papers. I have the base colored layer and then 2 overlays on top of that. My file size when flattened is HUGE! Like 15MB. Any ideas on how i can reduce the file size without compressing too much. What's an OK size for one paper. If i compress it down to 6MB it looks like crap cause you can see the results of the compression!
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lauren]

Depends on what size you are making your paper - what colours are involved and howmuch texture - the more variation ( ie texture colour variation)- the more data and therefore the larger the file size

[Meryl]

15KB is huge LOL! Paper does vary, the more texture you have the higher it will go - most of mine are well under 5KB, many beautiful ones are only 1KB.

What ppi are you using? Remember that 200ppi is more than adequate for beautiful printing.

[PRINCESSLALA]

that totally makes sense about why it's so big. It's a dark gray background, a purple dot overlay and a canvas texture overlay. i have to use 300ppi for this, so that adds size too.

Do you have a suggestion on the compression value i should use to avoid losing too much???

[Meryl]

Much as it would be great to be able to give a "recipe" amout its so difficult without seeing it - what I would do is compress to about 9 then, check the printing? you need only do a piece noth the whole lot?
Good luck with it :)

[debbers]

Laura:

You might try comparing 200dpi to 300dpi first. I've yet to see anything that you can see any significant difference in when printed out between 200 and 300 dpi. [And that's a print from a commercial color laser printer, not my home inkjet thing]

That will save some space if your paper looks OK both ways.

And I guess my next question is which file size are you looking at? The PSPIMAGE file will always be huge ... especially on something like that.

By the time you merge all the layers and make a *copy* of the paper as a JPEG, it'll be a good deal smaller. I'd start with a 10 percent setting for compression and go up in 1 step increments until you can actually see any degradation. Then bounce it back a notch, and call it quits.

With no JPEG compression at all, I *can* see a 300 dpi highly textured paper being 15 megs.

But remember to *always* save your final .PSPIMAGE layered file somewhere, too. In case you ever need a different size or make a change to it, use that. You don't want to use an already compressed JPEG to compress again, no matter how good it looks.

deb