Thread by @cabel

Let's compare the three — three!!! — totally separate ways to save PNG files in Photoshop.

① "Save for Web (Legacy)" is the classic interface we grew up on, and the only one that supports animated gif. (How legacy? They save as "Adobe ImageReady" files, discontinued in 2005 😅)

② "Export As…" is the new, "modern" interface for saving files in Photoshop. "Modern" in this case means kind of a weird UI, and missing a lot of options and features. But it's pretty zippy and doesn't block your other windows like (Legacy) does.

③ "Save a Copy…" is the wildcard. I think it's the only way to save a 16-bit PNG in Photoshop. And — oddly — this approach gives you three compression settings that "Export As…" does NOT have!?!?

I love "Save the smallest PNG from over a hundred possibilities!". drstrange.gif

Anyway here is how the file sizes compare exporting my huge food photo w/transparency.

Save A Copy Large11,682,141
Save A Copy Medium10,806,640
Save A Copy Small10,325,686
Save For Web (Legacy)10,812,574
Export As11,678,033

That's all. Happy Tuesday

Oh Twitter does not like tabs. Let me try that again.

Save A Copy Large — 11,682,141
Save A Copy Medium — 10,806,640
Save A Copy Small — 10,325,686
Save For Web (Legacy) — 10,812,574
Export As — 11,678,033

(Of course, you should run all PNGs through ImageOptim etc. anyway.)