Introduction - Version reviewed: Pro 5.2
Update 27 Apr '04: The Boxtop Software has been down for some while and they haven't responded to e-mails - looks like they might have gone bust.
ProJPEG from BoxTop Software is an Adobe Photoshop plug-in (compatible with V3 onwards) that provides additional capability and flexibility for saving JPG files. ProJPEG does not produce a proprietary format like, for instance, GenuineFractals; it produces standard JPG images, but with a few more bells and whistles at the creation stage.
Installation is straightforward. On a PC, the plug-in placed in the folder of your choice - typically,
One of the nice things about ProJPEG is that you can immediately see the effect of what you are doing. There are copies of the original image and the output image, and since the dialogue box is resizable, these can be made a useful size for you to see the effect of your settings. You can also zoom in and out on these images.
The main controls used to effect image size are the Quality and Smoothing sliders and text boxes. Both vary from 0-100. The use of the Quality slider is obvious, although the scale does not correspond with the 0-100 scale in the PS Save for Web command. Smoothness, says the manual, reduces noises in images and reduces file size:
"Higher smoothing settings will produce smaller files, but begin to degrade image quality in an effect similar to appearing out of focus and fuzzy."
A typical setting for smoothness is 20. One interesting feature that can be employed is to create a selection on part of the image. If an alpha channel exists when saving the ProJPEG file, you have the choice to apply smoothing to the foreground (selected area) or background (non-selected). This means that aggressive smoothing can be applied to out of focus background areas, but the main subject is saved with the quality setting as specified. This can have a significant effect on file size, without a proportional degradation of apparent image quality.