Now I've shown you the benefits of compressing JPG images, I figure some of you may need a bit of guidance on how exactly it is done since many programs don't have a real emphasis on this area.

While there are several programs you can use to compress JPG images (and other formats for that matter), I choose to use Paint Shop Pro (PSP) 7 by Jasc Software for the simple fact I already had it installed on my system and after trying a few different programs I found it to be one of the most easiest to use, as well it is one of the most popular graphics editing programs around. You can download a 30-day trial copy of Paint Shop Pro 7 from the Jasc Software website.

Step 1 - OK, so you have your JPG image open in PSP, click Save As like you usually would, which brings you to this screen:

Instead of just saving the image as you normally would, click Options.

Step 2 - This will bring up a new window as shown below, click Run Optimizer to give us a more detailed idea of what we are doing.

Step 3 - In the image below, this is where we optimize the JPG image.

The shot on the left is the original preview (what it would look like if you saved it usually with no optimization), on the right is a preview of what the optimized image will look liked when saved.

You can set the compression value ratio, as seen above, anywhere from 1:1 to 99:1. In this example, I used a compression ratio of 25:1 - Increasing the ratio anymore I found images began to loose quality. However, experiment with this value - You may be able to compress certain images more than 25:1 or if the image doesn't look right, you may have to reduce under 25:1 to maintain quality - The sweet spot shouldn't be too hard to find.