How to create clear thumbnails?

[Mona]

Is there a tutorial for reducing graphics for a thumbnail and still retaining sharpness? I read about a Photoshop trick where you sharpen an image before reducing it, only reduce in increments of 25% at a time and to do this as a JPG and increase saturation at the end. Does anyone know the steps this should be done in? Do you save between each reduction? Do you have to close out the file and reopen it for each successive save?

1. Save as a JPG
2. Sharpen
3. Save
4. Reduce
5. Save
6. Sharpen
7. Reduce
8. Save
etc.??

I have individual full-size graphics that I'm trying to drastically reduce to as little as 100x100 pixels. I need the thumbnails to be as clear as possible. I seem to have much better luck with the Unsharp mask because it seems to increase the saturation at the same time.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Mona

[JustChecking]

i don't know anything about making thumbnails in photoshop, but if you want a quick (batch) way to do so, i'd suggest IrfanView - http://www.irfanview.com - in batch mode (in "advanced options") you can set sharpening, resizing (both in percents and pixel size), color balancing etc.

[Mona]

Hello,

I figured out a system that seems to be working. I use Photoimpact and found the equivalent of the Hard Pass filter. For each individual graphic I do the following:

1. Duplicate graphic (new layer)
2. Apply Hard Pass filter by going to Blur, Flatten Uneven Edges, Low Pass=0, High Pass=10, Filter-1
3. Set the properties of this layer to Overlay, 70% opacity (can adjust this lower if needed)
4. Merge to single object.
5. Copy object to smaller background.
6. Reduce by 25% to desired size.
7. Either use Unsharpen Mask or Sharpen, lowest level. I actually got better results using the Sharpen filter. Using the Hard Pass filter above improves the color and saturation. Using the Unsharpen filter further adjusts the color and saturation which is too much.
8. Continue adding and arranging graphics
9. Merge all and save as JPG.

I didn't need to save as a JPG before reducing the image.

Thanks for the link to the batch info.

Mona

[Leah]

Thanks Mona, I think that will be really useful. I'll try working on that with a view to getting instructions for various different software packages and see if we can draw it together into a tutorial -- you're right, it would be a useful thing to have.