First of all, I know almost nothing about Photoshop; I'm working with
the 30-day download because I'm trying to make a postcard for
vistaprint.com and they recommend Photoshop. I've downloaded their
template, which is 1.33 MB, and the picture I'm trying to put into it
is 2.60 MB. Yet, when I put them together, the result is 17.1 MB --
and that's with me deleting one of their layers! I'm obviously doing
something VERY wrong. I need to get the file under 8 MB for vista to
accept it. Can someone me?

Here is the process I'm following, which intuitively seems okay to
me ... First, I am opening both files. I am selecting all, then
copying the file that I want to put into the template. Then, I go to
the template and paste my pictures into a layer that was already there
called "Your Design". That's all I do. Then I close the template file,
using "Save As" so I can rename it. I keep the maximize compatibility
on. When I check the size of the new file, it's 17.5 MB!

What did I do wrong? Why is the new file so much bigger than the two
files put together? Even with "maximize compatibility" turned off,
it's 9.10 and I need to get it, at 300 dpi, to less than 8 MB.

Can someone please me???

Thanks in advance!
Cindy

On Sat, 6 Sep 2008 22:28:46 -0700 (PDT), Amaris wrote:
....
> What did I do wrong? Why is the new file so much bigger than the two
> files put together? Even with "maximize compatibility" turned off,
> it's 9.10 and I need to get it, at 300 dpi, to less than 8 MB.
....
Do a "Flatten Image" command, and save your file under a different name as
a jpg and you'll be golden. Base any future changes on your pre-flattened
copy of the file.
--
Mike Russell - http://www.curvemeister.com

In article
<af55ef5f-29e1-40c3-b54d-ce9c50546ba2@z6g2000pre.googlegroups.com>,
Amaris <cjlantier@gmail.com> wrote:

> First of all, I know almost nothing about Photoshop; I'm working with
> the 30-day download because I'm trying to make a postcard for
> vistaprint.com and they recommend Photoshop. I've downloaded their
> template, which is 1.33 MB, and the picture I'm trying to put into it
> is 2.60 MB. Yet, when I put them together, the result is 17.1 MB --
> and that's with me deleting one of their layers! I'm obviously doing
> something VERY wrong. I need to get the file under 8 MB for vista to
> accept it. Can someone me?
>
> Here is the process I'm following, which intuitively seems okay to
> me ... First, I am opening both files. I am selecting all, then
> copying the file that I want to put into the template. Then, I go to
> the template and paste my pictures into a layer that was already there
> called "Your Design". That's all I do. Then I close the template file,
> using "Save As" so I can rename it. I keep the maximize compatibility
> on. When I check the size of the new file, it's 17.5 MB!
>
> What did I do wrong? Why is the new file so much bigger than the two
> files put together? Even with "maximize compatibility" turned off,
> it's 9.10 and I need to get it, at 300 dpi, to less than 8 MB.
>
> Can someone please me???
>
> Thanks in advance!
> Cindy

Incidentally, you can safely turn off "Maximize Compatibility." This
saves a separate flattened version of the image inside the layered
file. Such images can be opened by Photoshop versions below PS 4 (when
layers were first introduced, in the mid-1990s).

Tom Nelson
Tom Nelson Photography