There are times when you do not need a full-resolution image. This recipe will explain how to export an image with compression so that the image quality is decreased, along with the size of the file.
The following steps will explain how to change the image quality:
- Navigate to File | Export (Single Layer) | .jpg (JPEG).
- Name the file and choose a folder to save it in. Click on Save.
- The JPEG export settings dialog box will appear. Click on the checkbox next to Preview rendering results on output at the top of the window.
- Under JPEG settings, find the Quality setting. It is marked in this screenshot:
- Click on the arrow next to the number box and adjust the slider, or use the up and down arrows to change the compression of the output file.
- Click on OK.
- The Export preview window will now appear. If needed, continue to adjust the quality using the setting in the bottom-right corner of the preview window.
- Click on OK.
The lower the number set in the Quality option, the lower the file size of the export. As shown in the following screenshot, the Quality option is set to 80. Note the fairly large file size, at over 880 KB.
We can make the final file smaller by adjusting the quality down even more. By doing this, we sacrifice the quality of the image. Note how much the file size has gone down in the following screenshot, but also note how pixelated the image has become because of the low quality, especially around the gradients and the black lines:
