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  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    @ValoisFulcanelli : Excellent and more thorough example of exactly what I was trying to get across! I think I shall share that post with @Julyvee94 's Quick Guide to SimLit thread!

    I use external image hosting which makes Wordpress's "limit" a moot point to me (and that external image hosting is a friend's private server, so...) and yet, I STILL optimize my images! Habit? Of course, it does make it quicker to load, as you say, and helps with data plan issues, something I don't even think about because I live in the dark ages and don't own a cellphone. ^_^ I resize my images to 500x375 .jpg and save at 90% quality.

    But yes... that little extra time in a photo editor rather than just dropping screenshots in directly from the game can save sooooooo much account space and bandwidth!
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  • SilverDaybreakSilverDaybreak Posts: 2,080 Member
    Hello @Everyone!



    No, I haven't fallen off the end of the world but have just been playing in my other game saves and running the roads some and hope that you're all doing great.



    Welcome @Spacey72659 to the thread. Is the Sim in your gallery with the last name 'Spacey' your Simself? If so I'd love to add him/you to my game with the others for cameo and other fun.

    *waves to @everyone and hope that you all are doing great.



    Now for some Simming news:


    Barr-Aquino: Wealth of Musical Games


    https://silverssimland.wordpress.com/2016/04/24/barr-aquino-wealth-of-musical-games/



    Goss Family


    https://silverssimland.wordpress.com/2016/04/23/mr-mrs-goss-renaissance-athlete-3/



    Daisy Crenshaw


    https://silverssimland.wordpress.com/2016/04/21/daisy-crenshaw-soul-painter-3/



    Muniz Family


    https://silverssimland.wordpress.com/2016/04/20/brady-muniz-billion-bucks-2/



    From yesterday's game play:


    Cameos for today's update from Sandra Reynolds include: @MrsOogieBoogie, @MunnieSims, @Miki, @lisabee2's Crystal & Tiffiny, and @DianeTaylor



    https://silverscampfirestories.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/golden-gate-medical-center-generation-5-wealth-of-wellness-4/



    That's all for now and have a great night!

    Silver
  • Spacey72659Spacey72659 Posts: 1,479 Member
    Hello @Everyone!



    No, I haven't fallen off the end of the world but have just been playing in my other game saves and running the roads some and hope that you're all doing great.



    Welcome @Spacey72659 to the thread. Is the Sim in your gallery with the last name 'Spacey' your Simself? If so I'd love to add him/you to my game with the others for cameo and other fun.

    *waves to @everyone and hope that you all are doing great.



    Now for some Simming news:


    Barr-Aquino: Wealth of Musical Games


    https://silverssimland.wordpress.com/2016/04/24/barr-aquino-wealth-of-musical-games/



    Goss Family


    https://silverssimland.wordpress.com/2016/04/23/mr-mrs-goss-renaissance-athlete-3/



    Daisy Crenshaw


    https://silverssimland.wordpress.com/2016/04/21/daisy-crenshaw-soul-painter-3/



    Muniz Family


    https://silverssimland.wordpress.com/2016/04/20/brady-muniz-billion-bucks-2/



    From yesterday's game play:


    Cameos for today's update from Sandra Reynolds include: @MrsOogieBoogie, @MunnieSims, @Miki, @lisabee2's Crystal & Tiffiny, and @DianeTaylor



    https://silverscampfirestories.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/golden-gate-medical-center-generation-5-wealth-of-wellness-4/



    That's all for now and have a great night!

    Silver

    Hi!
    Hahahaa, no, Kevin is not my simself - I am a lady :) I actually don't think my Simself is in the gallery - I did do a custom content makeover of her on my challenge though - her name is Tessa Rose.
    I made Kevin for a challenge I did with @VIRTUALEE and @Weathie - we each made a sim and somehow incorporated our YouTube names into their names - then we each had the three sims backpack around Windenburg having adventures so we could see just how differently they behaved in each of our games.

    But you can absolutely put him in your games! That would be awesome :)
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member

    The wedding blog is published .. and for you long standing Prince and Snow fans there is a special surprise in this one for you!! I am so excited to share it with you and hear your reactions :) A BIG TY to @VIRTUALEE ​ for always pushing me to do more .. this one is for you my friend!

    https://lisabeesims.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/snow-white-5-the-wedding-day/
    SebEwnF.jpg
    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
  • VIRTUALEEVIRTUALEE Posts: 2,507 Member
    Hello @Everyone!



    No, I haven't fallen off the end of the world but have just been playing in my other game saves and running the roads some and hope that you're all doing great.



    Welcome @Spacey72659 to the thread. Is the Sim in your gallery with the last name 'Spacey' your Simself? If so I'd love to add him/you to my game with the others for cameo and other fun.

    *waves to @everyone and hope that you all are doing great.



    Now for some Simming news:


    Barr-Aquino: Wealth of Musical Games


    https://silverssimland.wordpress.com/2016/04/24/barr-aquino-wealth-of-musical-games/



    Goss Family


    https://silverssimland.wordpress.com/2016/04/23/mr-mrs-goss-renaissance-athlete-3/



    Daisy Crenshaw


    https://silverssimland.wordpress.com/2016/04/21/daisy-crenshaw-soul-painter-3/



    Muniz Family


    https://silverssimland.wordpress.com/2016/04/20/brady-muniz-billion-bucks-2/



    From yesterday's game play:


    Cameos for today's update from Sandra Reynolds include: @MrsOogieBoogie, @MunnieSims, @Miki, @lisabee2's Crystal & Tiffiny, and @DianeTaylor



    https://silverscampfirestories.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/golden-gate-medical-center-generation-5-wealth-of-wellness-4/



    That's all for now and have a great night!

    Silver

    Hi!
    Hahahaa, no, Kevin is not my simself - I am a lady :) I actually don't think my Simself is in the gallery - I did do a custom content makeover of her on my challenge though - her name is Tessa Rose.
    I made Kevin for a challenge I did with @VIRTUALEE and @Weathie - we each made a sim and somehow incorporated our YouTube names into their names - then we each had the three sims backpack around Windenburg having adventures so we could see just how differently they behaved in each of our games.

    But you can absolutely put him in your games! That would be awesome :)

    OH YAY Good 'ol Kev Lives ONNNnnn!!! <3
  • VIRTUALEEVIRTUALEE Posts: 2,507 Member
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    The wedding blog is published .. and for you long standing Prince and Snow fans there is a special surprise in this one for you!! I am so excited to share it with you and hear your reactions :) A BIG TY to @VIRTUALEE ​ for always pushing me to do more .. this one is for you my friend!

    https://lisabeesims.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/snow-white-5-the-wedding-day/

    <3<3 It was simply AMAZING I am so thrilled with this update and backstory OUTSTANDING even <3<3
  • Jes2GJes2G Posts: 13,032 Member
    Good morning!

    The Holmes family take a trip to Windenburg, and Devan finds that it's photography heaven. Enjoy!

    http://www.jes2gstories.com/photo-op/
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    Read Delicious Dishes & Dreams and more Stories By Jes2G!
    Origin ID: Jes2G | Forum Thread | Twitter | Tumblr
  • thesealofthesimsthesealofthesims Posts: 722 Member
    @Jes2G: Yeah, it was pretty busy, but in New York City, it's impossible to not be busy. Plus, after a while, I think the city started getting to all of us, but on a whole, it was fun.

    @mastressalita: I used to like traveling, but I think after a while, you get settled into your routine, and me, I like the routine. But even I managed to have some fun. NYC is quite the place, I'll tell you that. You kind of want to stay in and around places like Times Square, you know to stay out of the bad parts of town. I've never been to Boston, but I'd like to go someday. I'd also like to go back to California and Florida at some point. I've always wanted to go to one of those, not necessarily anime, but I know there are Pokémon conventions where you can take on other players. I'd like to get beaten by some new faces for a change. :P Anyway, have fun on your stay-cation. :)

    @Jes2G: Well, I can't speak for people here, but I've seen lots of people on FF come and go and some that go delete their stories. I think it's pretty sad myself, but some might consider it the final act of pulling away. Some might also be embarassed by what they've written. I can't say for sure.

    @RipuAncestor: Ah, school. I remember it fondly. Well, actually, I don't. :tongue:

    @SilverDaybreak: Always nice to see you. :)

    I know I haven't been very active with my own Sim stories, but I thought I'd tell you for anyone who reads A Simple Romance, I'm going to take it down and republish it. I just think it's getting off the rails a bit, I'm not happy with it (although I'm never happy with my own work), and I think it just needs a clean start. So, I'll repost a new link in the index once it's ready. Interesting fact, when J.R.R. Tolkien was writing his works, whenever he ran into something that didn't work, he would scrap it all and start over. I guess that means I have a bit of Tolkien in me. :tongue:
  • RipuAncestorRipuAncestor Posts: 2,332 Member
    @thesealofthesims I kinda like school, though right now my motivation isn't that great. I've been studying for too long in a row (I jumped right from getting a degree to studying for a second one. Ugh.)
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    My Sims stories:
    The Fey of Life - fairytales in life are few and far between (Forum thread HERE)
    The Chrysanthemum Tango - a story about life, death, magic, and how to be a good landlady (Forum thread HERE)
    Forget-Me-Not - some things just refuse to stay buried; an Ambrosia Challenge story (Forum thread HERE)
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    VIRTUALEE wrote: »
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    The wedding blog is published .. and for you long standing Prince and Snow fans there is a special surprise in this one for you!! I am so excited to share it with you and hear your reactions :) A BIG TY to @VIRTUALEE ​ for always pushing me to do more .. this one is for you my friend!

    https://lisabeesims.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/snow-white-5-the-wedding-day/

    <3<3 It was simply AMAZING I am so thrilled with this update and backstory OUTSTANDING even <3<3

    I am honored @VIRTUALEE .. you are one of the ones at the forefront of my thoughts as I contemplate and conjure <3
    SebEwnF.jpg
    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    @Jes2G: Yeah, it was pretty busy, but in New York City, it's impossible to not be busy. Plus, after a while, I think the city started getting to all of us, but on a whole, it was fun.

    I know I haven't been very active with my own Sim stories, but I thought I'd tell you for anyone who reads A Simple Romance, I'm going to take it down and republish it. I just think it's getting off the rails a bit, I'm not happy with it (although I'm never happy with my own work), and I think it just needs a clean start. So, I'll repost a new link in the index once it's ready. Interesting fact, when J.R.R. Tolkien was writing his works, whenever he ran into something that didn't work, he would scrap it all and start over. I guess that means I have a bit of Tolkien in me. :tongue:

    @thesealofthesims and that would be the BEST to have a bit of inside of you!! You are on the my list of wanting to start reading but I will wait for your republish :) I agree that sometimes .. like a fine wine ... stories can be put away and then brought back out to the table much richer and deeper with the experience of the cask behind them :)
    SebEwnF.jpg
    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    @lisabee2, I have teenagers :( and one is driving me crazy. I did a lot of picture taking yesterday but no time for reading the last few days :( glad you can fit it in when grands are at preschool :)

    @mastressalita, squeezing in sim time is very important to keep you sane :) hope it keeps up. Did picture yesterday and tomorrow, on my day off will do more then if I have time hopefully get to write.

    OH I adored my teens .. I had girls and all as sweet as can be (little pills at times as all teens are) .. they are days to be treasured! My grands bring me great delight (the little buggers are still asleep since they stayed up far later last night than mom or dad allow lol) my 4 year old had to be pulled from the bath dripping ha ha ha ah ah .. she was having way to much fun!
    SebEwnF.jpg
    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    VIRTUALEE wrote: »
    Hello @Everyone!



    No, I haven't fallen off the end of the world but have just been playing in my other game saves and running the roads some and hope that you're all doing great.



    Welcome @Spacey72659 to the thread. Is the Sim in your gallery with the last name 'Spacey' your Simself? If so I'd love to add him/you to my game with the others for cameo and other fun.

    Silver

    Hi!
    Hahahaa, no, Kevin is not my simself - I am a lady :) I actually don't think my Simself is in the gallery - I did do a custom content makeover of her on my challenge though - her name is Tessa Rose.
    I made Kevin for a challenge I did with @VIRTUALEE and @Weathie - we each made a sim and somehow incorporated our YouTube names into their names - then we each had the three sims backpack around Windenburg having adventures so we could see just how differently they behaved in each of our games.

    But you can absolutely put him in your games! That would be awesome :)

    OH YAY Good 'ol Kev Lives ONNNnnn!!! <3

    Welcome @Spacey72659 from me too .. you do not know me but I know you thru your simmie .. he has brought me many SMH moments LOL .. glad to see Kev survived the trip!!
    SebEwnF.jpg
    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    [ ... ] resizing their images (I can't even count how many sites I see that upload all their images at full resolution when they really don't need too, inadvertantly killing their onsite storage in no time) [ ... ]
    Not only does that kill their onsite storage, but it's also not considerate of their readers, since it forces their computers/tablets/phones to download the full sized, large image. For those on a data cap (especially those browsing via mobile) not resizing your images can result in them facing excess data fees.

    Every single image that I post, regardless of where I post it, is optimised to the enth degree. I make sure they're resized (aka: width etc) to the optimum size for the place I'm posting (650px for my story, 1000px for this forum, 1280px for Tumblr) and then I use Photoshop's "Save for Web" option (most free image editors have an option - sometimes called "web-safe" - similar to this, too) to get the file size (aka: the KB needed to download the image) down as small as possible. If you have no web-safe/save-for-web option on your image editor, look for a JPG quality option when you save. Slide it down to 90% and you'll shave a lot off the file size without losing any of the quality.

    I just did a quick test using a full sized screenshot that's in my folder. I run The Sims 3 at 1920 x 1080 resolution, so that's the size of the original screenshot. It's already a JPG, so I don't need to worry about converting it. (PleasePLEASE don't ever upload screenshots as PNGs or - Watcher help us - BMPs!) I then resized it using Paint (which all Windows users have) down to 700 pixels in width, which is perfectly adequate for most blogs. And for a third test, I used my old version of Photoshop to resize to 700 pixels and then save "for web" (which basically means using web-safe colours. This doesn't affect the colours of the image at all).

    The resultant file sizes, if they were on a website or blog and being downloaded are:

    websafeexample01.jpg

    (And yes, I even optimised that image!)

    Apart from the visual size, there is no noticable difference between the three images. Not even between the web-safe 700px version and the normal 700px version, even though it's almost half the size. This is the screenshot in that web-safe format:

    websafe01.jpg

    (This is a raw, unedited screenshot. Normally, I would have changed the contrast and also sharpened the image after resizing, too, hence it looks just a teeny bit fuzzy, which it normally wouldn't.)

    The free version of Wordpress gives you (I think) about 2GB of storage. That's 2,097,152KB. Not counting the space you'd use for your actual posts, using the image sizes above, you'd be able to fit the following amount of images in that storage:
    • Original, unresized image: 2,653 images
    • Resized to 700 pixels: 33,288 images
    • Resized to 700 pixels and web-safe: 53,773 images
    This assumes that all of the images are of the same visual complexity. The screenshot that I picked for my experiment is a fairly simple one: a dark background with a few lamps and two dark figures, one playing a piano and one a violin. If I choose another image with far more detail in it (in this case, a brightly-lit scuba diver, opening a treasure chest) the original file size of that is 1.83MB. That's more than twice the size of the other image.

    Here's the resizing and web-safe file sizes for that second one:

    websafeexample02.jpg

    And here is that more visually-complex image in the web-safe format:

    websafe02.jpg

    With most Sims stories containing multiple images per chapter - many of which will be quite visually complex - it's easy to see how a long story such as a legacy could burn through that storage in no time if the author doesn't resize and optimise their images. But it's also easy to see how a reader could burn through their data allowance if one chapter of a story contains 15 images, all over 1MB in size!

    @ValoisFulcanelli .. ty so much for the primer .. I am so new to this and a little bit lost. I was a bit worried about using up space. So you pass your pic thru paint? and resize them to half the size?? do they have to be reuploaded to do this for pic that have already been published?
    SebEwnF.jpg
    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    @Spacey72659 : That makes sense though! If you end up with a character you love that doesn't get enough screen time in one series, may as well give them a series of their own! I can see how the combination of memoriable Sims + finding fun and/or interesting-looking challenges has a way of letting the mind-bunny population explode, hahaha!


    @lisabee2 : If you are interested in trying really short form stories, you should check out the Short Story Challenges thread! It's a lot of fun! Every month there is a different theme, and typically you have to write a short story of 500-1500 words using 1-12 screencaps focused on that theme. If you like the challenge of stretching your mind to write short pieces around different themes, it might be worth checking out. You can use any Sims game and any Sims (make new ones or use ones from your other works) for the stories. This month is a very different sort of challenge: there are two different sets of pre-determined screencaps, and you have to pick one of the two sets, and write a story for those pictures (you can re-order the pictures however you wish, though). We've never done anything like that before and reading all the different entries has been as entertaining as always!

    I follow that one and am attempting to concoct something (just mentally now but finger crossed) :)
    SebEwnF.jpg
    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
  • ra3reira3rei Posts: 2,418 Member
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    [ ... ] resizing their images (I can't even count how many sites I see that upload all their images at full resolution when they really don't need too, inadvertantly killing their onsite storage in no time) [ ... ]
    Not only does that kill their onsite storage, but it's also not considerate of their readers, since it forces their computers/tablets/phones to download the full sized, large image. For those on a data cap (especially those browsing via mobile) not resizing your images can result in them facing excess data fees.

    Every single image that I post, regardless of where I post it, is optimised to the enth degree. I make sure they're resized (aka: width etc) to the optimum size for the place I'm posting (650px for my story, 1000px for this forum, 1280px for Tumblr) and then I use Photoshop's "Save for Web" option (most free image editors have an option - sometimes called "web-safe" - similar to this, too) to get the file size (aka: the KB needed to download the image) down as small as possible. If you have no web-safe/save-for-web option on your image editor, look for a JPG quality option when you save. Slide it down to 90% and you'll shave a lot off the file size without losing any of the quality.

    I just did a quick test using a full sized screenshot that's in my folder. I run The Sims 3 at 1920 x 1080 resolution, so that's the size of the original screenshot. It's already a JPG, so I don't need to worry about converting it. (PleasePLEASE don't ever upload screenshots as PNGs or - Watcher help us - BMPs!) I then resized it using Paint (which all Windows users have) down to 700 pixels in width, which is perfectly adequate for most blogs. And for a third test, I used my old version of Photoshop to resize to 700 pixels and then save "for web" (which basically means using web-safe colours. This doesn't affect the colours of the image at all).

    The resultant file sizes, if they were on a website or blog and being downloaded are:

    websafeexample01.jpg

    (And yes, I even optimised that image!)

    Apart from the visual size, there is no noticable difference between the three images. Not even between the web-safe 700px version and the normal 700px version, even though it's almost half the size. This is the screenshot in that web-safe format:

    websafe01.jpg

    (This is a raw, unedited screenshot. Normally, I would have changed the contrast and also sharpened the image after resizing, too, hence it looks just a teeny bit fuzzy, which it normally wouldn't.)

    The free version of Wordpress gives you (I think) about 2GB of storage. That's 2,097,152KB. Not counting the space you'd use for your actual posts, using the image sizes above, you'd be able to fit the following amount of images in that storage:
    • Original, unresized image: 2,653 images
    • Resized to 700 pixels: 33,288 images
    • Resized to 700 pixels and web-safe: 53,773 images
    This assumes that all of the images are of the same visual complexity. The screenshot that I picked for my experiment is a fairly simple one: a dark background with a few lamps and two dark figures, one playing a piano and one a violin. If I choose another image with far more detail in it (in this case, a brightly-lit scuba diver, opening a treasure chest) the original file size of that is 1.83MB. That's more than twice the size of the other image.

    Here's the resizing and web-safe file sizes for that second one:

    websafeexample02.jpg

    And here is that more visually-complex image in the web-safe format:

    websafe02.jpg

    With most Sims stories containing multiple images per chapter - many of which will be quite visually complex - it's easy to see how a long story such as a legacy could burn through that storage in no time if the author doesn't resize and optimise their images. But it's also easy to see how a reader could burn through their data allowance if one chapter of a story contains 15 images, all over 1MB in size!

    @ValoisFulcanelli .. ty so much for the primer .. I am so new to this and a little bit lost. I was a bit worried about using up space. So you pass your pic thru paint? and resize them to half the size?? do they have to be reuploaded to do this for pic that have already been published?

    Yeah. You'll have to reupload the smaller size if they're already uploaded. And then attach the new pictures to the posts and delete the old. A bit of work if you've got a lot, but worth it.

    I send all my pictures through a resizer script in my photo editor of choice. Before I attach any to a post. Two years and almost 400 posts later and I'm only at 31% of my WordPress space.
    Check out Raerei's Fortress for Builds, Short Stories, and maybe some longer stuff.
  • ValoisFulcanelliValoisFulcanelli Posts: 672 Member
    edited April 2016
    Warning: bit of a long post coming up!

    @mastressalita Thank you :) The more people we can reach with the notion of resizing their images, the better for everyone. For the writers, because they won't run out of space, and for the readers, who won't have their favourite stories suddenly pulled offline.

    The reason why I started optimising my images is because, like you, I once relied on the server space of a very kind friend. I knew about bandwidth back then, so when I posted an image on a forum that might be loaded by hundreds of people I wanted to make sure that each image impacted on my friend's bandwidth as little as possible. 100 people loading a forum page which contained five 1MB PNG images of mine would hammer my friend's server to the tune of almost half a gigabyte of bandwidth.

    Now that I have my own server, naturally I'm concerned about my own bandwidth!

    @Miki Optimising the images on a webpage is always a thoughtful thing to do for your readers. Many many people now browse the internet on smartphones or tablets, and many mobile tariffs come with data caps. Blogs such as Wordpress are hefty to load anyway - PHP being what it is - but add in a load of full-sized images that have just been 'fake-resized' by the blog's theme (using the 'width/height' coding) and that can lead to a considerable amount of data use.

    @lisabee2 I used Paint as an example, since all Windows users will have that. (I assume Mac users also have a comparable image-editing program installed by default.) You can also use freeware image editors such as Gimp or Photoscape, or even online editors like Paint.net.
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    So you pass your pic thru paint? and resize them to half the size??
    I would definitely resize to a set amount, not just half of the original image size. I went to look at your blog and chose your most recent post as an example. The width of the main text area in your blog's theme is approximately 700 pixels, so I would resize to that. I got that size from taking a screenshot of your blog and cropping to the width of that main area, then checking the width of the crop at the bottom of my image editing program:

    width01.jpg

    I hope you don't mind my using your blog as an example here. I really want to help you maximise the storage space you have, especially since you've said you're worried about running out of it, so I'm going to dig a little bit deeper into your site :)

    I'll put the rest of this post behind a spoiler cut, so just click it to show everything.
    Of bigger concern than the size of your images is the fact that you're uploading them as PNG files instead of JPGs. PNG files are much bigger and take longer to download. Case in point: I'm on a fast connection and that chapter took almost 15 seconds to download fully. Admittedly, I'm in the UK, so my ping to the States, where the Wordpress servers are located, is higher than it would be for someone in the US, but that's still a long time for a webpage to load. I remember the days of 56k dialup, and I don't want to be twiddling my thumbs when I could be reading instead!

    I downloaded the full size of one of your images from that post and did my resizing experiment on it, to give you an idea of how much space you could save.

    resize04.jpg

    - No. 1a is your original PNG image. Look how huge it is! 1240KB is about 1.21MB!
    - No. 1b is the same sized image, just saved as a JPG file. It's now one fifth of the original size.
    - No. 2 is the original PNG, resized to 700 pixels wide in Paint, then saved as a JPG.
    - No. 3 is the original PNG, resized to 700 pixels in Photoscape, then saved as a JPG, with the quality slider nudged down to 90%.
    - No. 4 is the original PNG, resized to 700 pixels in Photoshop, then saved as a JPG in web-safe format.

    There isn't much difference between the last two, but the main thing to take away from that screenshot is this: in the storage space taken up by one single image the size of the first PNG one, you could fit in 20 of the resized JPG images at the 90% quality setting!

    Many of the images in that chapter are already resized, but where you have the panels of multiple images is where you also have the problem. (These are the ones where you can click them to view the image in a bigger size.) Each of those multiple images is actually a full-sized PNG, at up to 1920 pixels in width, and each most likely about 1MB in size as well.

    You have 20 panelled images like that, so that's approximately 20MB, not counting the other images on the page.

    Resizing in Paint is very simple. Just open your pic, then click the Resize button -

    resize01.jpg

    Make sure you have 'pixels' checked, then change the width to 700 and click OK.

    resize01a.jpg

    Then, click Save As > JPEG.

    resize02.jpg

    With a free image editor like Photoscape, you can do a lot more than you can with Paint, too. Just for fun, I took one of your lovely wedding images and turned it into an antique sepia photo with just a few clicks.

    sepiawedding.jpg

    Most freeware image editors will have similar options, but Photoscape has a LOT of extra added things, so it's worth looking into. It even has a 'page' option that lets you easily drag and drop multiple images into a set of frames (of which it has many options). Here's one that I did for variants of one of my characters:

    valoisvariants.jpg

    It took me longer to find the images I wanted and to add the text than it did to drop them into the template! :mrgreen: It might be a good space-saving device for you to use for those panelled images in your chapters.

    You can download Photoscape (it's entirely free) here.

    Hope that helps!

    Edited: Typos.
    Post edited by ValoisFulcanelli on
    tfb.jpg
  • MikiMiki Posts: 1,692 Member
    edited April 2016
    @ValoisFulcanelli
    Thanks again. Your info is actually more of an "Heads-Up" as I have yet to publish anything pictorial on my blog, so to date I have not chewed up anyone's Smartphone data allowances.
    And of course I know the so-called "Unlimited Plans"-- aren't (They're "Unlimited: Winky-wink, elbow-elbow; with the fine print "Subject to reasonable usage limitations" ) where the carriers pull numbers out of their.. ears.. and decide that anything above that gets throttled.
  • Lckygrl1975Lckygrl1975 Posts: 1,582 Member
    @lisabee2, My eldest teen is a handful at the moment. It came to a head a few weeks ago. Things are only starting to settle back down. I wanted to sim yesterday but sadly didn't get the time :( How are the grands?
    PPHeader_zpsacc5170a.jpg</a>
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    @lisabee2, My eldest teen is a handful at the moment. It came to a head a few weeks ago. Things are only starting to settle back down. I wanted to sim yesterday but sadly didn't get the time :( How are the grands?

    @Lckygrl1975 ASLEEP! LOL .. I want to play but I keep falling asleep at my desk! I hav had them 2 days now and goodness I am tired. Their parents come home tomorrow evening so only I can rest then.

    I have worked with teens for a very long time .. I can tell you that this too shall pass. My dear saint of a MIL used to say that they did not become human til they were 24 LOL As with much of what she used to say .. she was correct :)
    SebEwnF.jpg
    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    Miki wrote: »
    @ValoisFulcanelli
    Thanks again. Your info is actually more of an "Heads-Up" as I have yet to publish anything pictorial on my blog, so to date I have not chewed up anyone's Smartphone data allowances.
    And of course I know the so-called "Unlimited Plans"-- aren't (They're "Unlimited: Winky-wink, elbow-elbow; with the fine print "Subject to reasonable usage limitations" ) where the carriers pull numbers out of their.. ears.. and decide that anything above that gets throttled.

    @miki <3 I shall remember to check for the "Winky-wink, elbow-elbow" <3 LOL
    SebEwnF.jpg
    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    Warning: bit of a long post coming up!

    @mastressalita Thank you :) The more people we can reach with the notion of resizing their images, the better for everyone. For the writers, because they won't run out of space, and for the readers, who won't have their favourite stories suddenly pulled offline.

    The reason why I started optimising my images is because, like you, I once relied on the server space of a very kind friend. I knew about bandwidth back then, so when I posted an image on a forum that might be loaded by hundreds of people I wanted to make sure that each image impacted on my friend's bandwidth as little as possible. 100 people loading a forum page which contained five 1MB PNG images of mine would hammer my friend's server to the tune of almost half a gigabyte of bandwidth.

    Now that I have my own server, naturally I'm concerned about my own bandwidth!

    @Miki Optimising the images on a webpage is always a thoughtful thing to do for your readers. Many many people now browse the internet on smartphones or tablets, and many mobile tariffs come with data caps. Blogs such as Wordpress are hefty to load anyway - PHP being what it is - but add in a load of full-sized images that have just been 'fake-resized' by the blog's theme (using the 'width/height' coding) and that can lead to a considerable amount of data use.

    @lisabee2 I used Paint as an example, since all Windows users will have that. (I assume Mac users also have a comparable image-editing program installed by default.) You can also use freeware image editors such as Gimp or Photoscape, or even online editors like Paint.net.
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    So you pass your pic thru paint? and resize them to half the size??
    I would definitely resize to a set amount, not just half of the original image size. I went to look at your blog and chose your most recent post as an example. The width of the main text area in your blog's theme is approximately 700 pixels, so I would resize to that. I got that size from taking a screenshot of your blog and cropping to the width of that main area, then checking the width of the crop at the bottom of my image editing program:

    width01.jpg

    I hope you don't mind my using your blog as an example here. I really want to help you maximise the storage space you have, especially since you've said you're worried about running out of it, so I'm going to dig a little bit deeper into your site :)

    I'll put the rest of this post behind a spoiler cut, so just click it to show everything.
    Of bigger concern than the size of your images is the fact that you're uploading them as PNG files instead of JPGs. PNG files are much bigger and take longer to download. Case in point: I'm on a fast connection and that chapter took almost 15 seconds to download fully. Admittedly, I'm in the UK, so my ping to the States, where the Wordpress servers are located, is higher than it would be for someone in the US, but that's still a long time for a webpage to load. I remember the days of 56k dialup, and I don't want to be twiddling my thumbs when I could be reading instead!

    I downloaded the full size of one of your images from that post and did my resizing experiment on it, to give you an idea of how much space you could save.

    resize04.jpg

    - No. 1a is your original PNG image. Look how huge it is! 1240KB is about 1.21MB!
    - No. 1b is the same sized image, just saved as a JPG file. It's now one fifth of the original size.
    - No. 2 is the original PNG, resized to 700 pixels wide in Paint, then saved as a JPG.
    - No. 3 is the original PNG, resized to 700 pixels in Photoscape, then saved as a JPG, with the quality slider nudged down to 90%.
    - No. 4 is the original PNG, resized to 700 pixels in Photoshop, then saved as a JPG in web-safe format.

    There isn't much difference between the last two, but the main thing to take away from that screenshot is this: in the storage space taken up by one single image the size of the first PNG one, you could fit in 20 of the resized JPG images at the 90% quality setting!

    Many of the images in that chapter are already resized, but where you have the panels of multiple images is where you also have the problem. (These are the ones where you can click them to view the image in a bigger size.) Each of those multiple images is actually a full-sized PNG, at up to 1920 pixels in width, and each most likely about 1MB in size as well.

    You have 20 panelled images like that, so that's approximately 20MB, not counting the other images on the page.

    Resizing in Paint is very simple. Just open your pic, then click the Resize button -

    resize01.jpg

    Make sure you have 'pixels' checked, then change the width to 700 and click OK.

    resize01a.jpg

    Then, click Save As > JPEG.

    resize02.jpg

    With a free image editor like Photoscape, you can do a lot more than you can with Paint, too. Just for fun, I took one of your lovely wedding images and turned it into an antique sepia photo with just a few clicks.

    sepiawedding.jpg

    Most freeware image editors will have similar options, but Photoscape has a LOT of extra added things, so it's worth looking into. It even has a 'page' option that lets you easily drag and drop multiple images into a set of frames (of which it has many options). Here's one that I did for variants of one of my characters:

    valoisvariants.jpg

    It took me longer to find the images I wanted and to add the text than it did to drop them into the template! :mrgreen: It might be a good space-saving device for you to use for those panelled images in your chapters.

    You can download Photoscape (it's entirely free) here.

    Hope that helps!

    Edited: Typos.

    @ValoisFulcanelli dig away .. I am open to suggestion! Still learning!
    SebEwnF.jpg
    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    edited April 2016
    Warning: bit of a long post coming up!

    @mastressalita Thank you :) The more people we can reach with the notion of resizing their images, the better for everyone. For the writers, because they won't run out of space, and for the readers, who won't have their favourite stories suddenly pulled offline.

    The reason why I started optimising my images is because, like you, I once relied on the server space of a very kind friend. I knew about bandwidth back then, so when I posted an image on a forum that might be loaded by hundreds of people I wanted to make sure that each image impacted on my friend's bandwidth as little as possible. 100 people loading a forum page which contained five 1MB PNG images of mine would hammer my friend's server to the tune of almost half a gigabyte of bandwidth.

    Now that I have my own server, naturally I'm concerned about my own bandwidth!

    @Miki Optimising the images on a webpage is always a thoughtful thing to do for your readers. Many many people now browse the internet on smartphones or tablets, and many mobile tariffs come with data caps. Blogs such as Wordpress are hefty to load anyway - PHP being what it is - but add in a load of full-sized images that have just been 'fake-resized' by the blog's theme (using the 'width/height' coding) and that can lead to a considerable amount of data use.

    @lisabee2 I used Paint as an example, since all Windows users will have that. (I assume Mac users also have a comparable image-editing program installed by default.) You can also use freeware image editors such as Gimp or Photoscape, or even online editors like Paint.net.
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    So you pass your pic thru paint? and resize them to half the size??
    I would definitely resize to a set amount, not just half of the original image size. I went to look at your blog and chose your most recent post as an example. The width of the main text area in your blog's theme is approximately 700 pixels, so I would resize to that. I got that size from taking a screenshot of your blog and cropping to the width of that main area, then checking the width of the crop at the bottom of my image editing program:

    width01.jpg

    I hope you don't mind my using your blog as an example here. I really want to help you maximise the storage space you have, especially since you've said you're worried about running out of it, so I'm going to dig a little bit deeper into your site :)

    I'll put the rest of this post behind a spoiler cut, so just click it to show everything.
    Of bigger concern than the size of your images is the fact that you're uploading them as PNG files instead of JPGs. PNG files are much bigger and take longer to download. Case in point: I'm on a fast connection and that chapter took almost 15 seconds to download fully. Admittedly, I'm in the UK, so my ping to the States, where the Wordpress servers are located, is higher than it would be for someone in the US, but that's still a long time for a webpage to load. I remember the days of 56k dialup, and I don't want to be twiddling my thumbs when I could be reading instead!

    I downloaded the full size of one of your images from that post and did my resizing experiment on it, to give you an idea of how much space you could save.

    resize04.jpg

    - No. 1a is your original PNG image. Look how huge it is! 1240KB is about 1.21MB!
    - No. 1b is the same sized image, just saved as a JPG file. It's now one fifth of the original size.
    - No. 2 is the original PNG, resized to 700 pixels wide in Paint, then saved as a JPG.
    - No. 3 is the original PNG, resized to 700 pixels in Photoscape, then saved as a JPG, with the quality slider nudged down to 90%.
    - No. 4 is the original PNG, resized to 700 pixels in Photoshop, then saved as a JPG in web-safe format.

    There isn't much difference between the last two, but the main thing to take away from that screenshot is this: in the storage space taken up by one single image the size of the first PNG one, you could fit in 20 of the resized JPG images at the 90% quality setting!

    Many of the images in that chapter are already resized, but where you have the panels of multiple images is where you also have the problem. (These are the ones where you can click them to view the image in a bigger size.) Each of those multiple images is actually a full-sized PNG, at up to 1920 pixels in width, and each most likely about 1MB in size as well.

    You have 20 panelled images like that, so that's approximately 20MB, not counting the other images on the page.

    Resizing in Paint is very simple. Just open your pic, then click the Resize button -

    resize01.jpg

    Make sure you have 'pixels' checked, then change the width to 700 and click OK.

    resize01a.jpg

    Then, click Save As > JPEG.

    resize02.jpg

    With a free image editor like Photoscape, you can do a lot more than you can with Paint, too. Just for fun, I took one of your lovely wedding images and turned it into an antique sepia photo with just a few clicks.

    sepiawedding.jpg

    Most freeware image editors will have similar options, but Photoscape has a LOT of extra added things, so it's worth looking into. It even has a 'page' option that lets you easily drag and drop multiple images into a set of frames (of which it has many options). Here's one that I did for variants of one of my characters:

    valoisvariants.jpg

    It took me longer to find the images I wanted and to add the text than it did to drop them into the template! :mrgreen: It might be a good space-saving device for you to use for those panelled images in your chapters.

    You can download Photoscape (it's entirely free) here.

    Hope that helps!

    Edited: Typos.

    @ValoisFulcanelli ..my head is spinning .. I am going to go to an earlier post and mess with it :) I will def get rid of that png file right away .. need to find out which one it is .. I warn you that you are talking to a rank nube! LOL we all start somewhere! WOW I just went in to look at the pics and I had no idea I was saving some a png! I feel a tad D-U-M-B!
    SebEwnF.jpg
    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    ra3rei wrote: »
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    [ ... ] resizing their images (I can't even count how many sites I see that upload all their images at full resolution when they really don't need too, inadvertantly killing their onsite storage in no time) [ ... ]
    Not only does that kill their onsite storage, but it's also not considerate of their readers, since it forces their computers/tablets/phones to download the full sized, large image. For those on a data cap (especially those browsing via mobile) not resizing your images can result in them facing excess data fees.

    Every single image that I post, regardless of where I post it, is optimised to the enth degree. I make sure they're resized (aka: width etc) to the optimum size for the place I'm posting (650px for my story, 1000px for this forum, 1280px for Tumblr) and then I use Photoshop's "Save for Web" option (most free image editors have an option - sometimes called "web-safe" - similar to this, too) to get the file size (aka: the KB needed to download the image) down as small as possible. If you have no web-safe/save-for-web option on your image editor, look for a JPG quality option when you save. Slide it down to 90% and you'll shave a lot off the file size without losing any of the quality.

    I just did a quick test using a full sized screenshot that's in my folder. I run The Sims 3 at 1920 x 1080 resolution, so that's the size of the original screenshot. It's already a JPG, so I don't need to worry about converting it. (PleasePLEASE don't ever upload screenshots as PNGs or - Watcher help us - BMPs!) I then resized it using Paint (which all Windows users have) down to 700 pixels in width, which is perfectly adequate for most blogs. And for a third test, I used my old version of Photoshop to resize to 700 pixels and then save "for web" (which basically means using web-safe colours. This doesn't affect the colours of the image at all).

    The resultant file sizes, if they were on a website or blog and being downloaded are:

    websafeexample01.jpg

    (And yes, I even optimised that image!)

    Apart from the visual size, there is no noticable difference between the three images. Not even between the web-safe 700px version and the normal 700px version, even though it's almost half the size. This is the screenshot in that web-safe format:

    websafe01.jpg

    (This is a raw, unedited screenshot. Normally, I would have changed the contrast and also sharpened the image after resizing, too, hence it looks just a teeny bit fuzzy, which it normally wouldn't.)

    The free version of Wordpress gives you (I think) about 2GB of storage. That's 2,097,152KB. Not counting the space you'd use for your actual posts, using the image sizes above, you'd be able to fit the following amount of images in that storage:
    • Original, unresized image: 2,653 images
    • Resized to 700 pixels: 33,288 images
    • Resized to 700 pixels and web-safe: 53,773 images
    This assumes that all of the images are of the same visual complexity. The screenshot that I picked for my experiment is a fairly simple one: a dark background with a few lamps and two dark figures, one playing a piano and one a violin. If I choose another image with far more detail in it (in this case, a brightly-lit scuba diver, opening a treasure chest) the original file size of that is 1.83MB. That's more than twice the size of the other image.

    Here's the resizing and web-safe file sizes for that second one:

    websafeexample02.jpg

    And here is that more visually-complex image in the web-safe format:

    websafe02.jpg

    With most Sims stories containing multiple images per chapter - many of which will be quite visually complex - it's easy to see how a long story such as a legacy could burn through that storage in no time if the author doesn't resize and optimise their images. But it's also easy to see how a reader could burn through their data allowance if one chapter of a story contains 15 images, all over 1MB in size!

    @ValoisFulcanelli .. ty so much for the primer .. I am so new to this and a little bit lost. I was a bit worried about using up space. So you pass your pic thru paint? and resize them to half the size?? do they have to be reuploaded to do this for pic that have already been published?

    Yeah. You'll have to reupload the smaller size if they're already uploaded. And then attach the new pictures to the posts and delete the old. A bit of work if you've got a lot, but worth it.

    I send all my pictures through a resizer script in my photo editor of choice. Before I attach any to a post. Two years and almost 400 posts later and I'm only at 31% of my WordPress space.

    That is so awesome .. ty for letting me know. And I have seen your blog it is lovely .. the pics suffer none for it!
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    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    Although I do feel a little left out and ignored in this thread, I am going to continue giving updates on the Nolan clan because I just love to show off my Sims. In The Sims 3, I was known here on a previous thread for having outrageous hair colors for my Sims and colorful, big eyes on my Sims, all of those colors being custom made by myself. I wish I could still do that in Sims 4, but since I don't have that ability now, I now make my Sims unique by naming them after gods and goddesses from all types of mythology all around the world. I'm a mythology geek and I put my two loves together: mythology, and Sims.
    Anyways, enough about that rant. My new patriarch Gikuyu and his wife Moombi now have two children, their eldest being their firstborn daughter whom I named Ratri, and then her baby brother came along and was named Fanus. Moombi is pregnant for the third time and so far the genetics on Ratri haven't turned out too bad.

    @FayeShinomori I understand your feelings .. I too have felt that way on many threads. I think lots of these folks have been around for along time and know each other well. I know @SilverDaybreak is a very kind person and this seems to be a very nice group ... I think you just keep trying :) AND if I am alright I will talk to you :) link me your story and I will spend a bit of time getting to know your simmies too.
    SebEwnF.jpg
    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
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