by Donald Herion

Have you ever scaled an image only to find that the end result looks nothing like the original? If you aren't careful, the image will appear to be something Picasso might have painted.

For example, take a look at Image 1 and 2 below. Both are 256 color gifs. The original is 468 by 60 and the other is the same image scaled down to 280 by 36. The loss in quality is substantial and unprofessional.

Image 1: Original 8-bit image

Image 2: 8-bit image scaled down

The remedy to this problem is very simple and can be done with any image editing program, including Photoshop, Fireworks or Paint Shop Pro.

First convert your 256 color image to RGB format. Then scale down the image to the desired size. Finally, convert it back to 8-bit, or Indexed Color.

The improved result (Image 3) is very apparent.

Note: You can also use this technique to scale an image up; however, it isn't always a good idea to scale an image larger than its original size.

Image 3: 24-bit image scaled down and converted back to 8-bit

If you are still having trouble scaling images, you might want to check out our Web Graphics for Beginners Tutorial.