Yes, I apologize for reading too hastily. I downloaded and installed
Paint Shop Pro just to experience the tool you're talking about.
Quite cool, though a bigger window would be even better. Why
quibble.
I've just done a "study" of JPG file sizes and compression ratios
among four applications: Each app is freshly installed and
up to date. I tested the four *least compressed* JPG steps
from each application. Here's how the sizes stack up.
All the files are here if anyone's curious:
<
http://www.terrapinphoto.com/jpg_vs_tif/>
// The original is a Canon 10D RAW capture at
// 3072 x 2048, downsampled to 1500 x 1000 in PS CS2.
05/03/2006 08:43 PM 4,529,036 original.tif
// Adobe Photoshop CS2
// Scale: 12=best, 0=most compressed, Step: 1
05/03/2006 08:44 PM 1,470,466 pscs2_q12.jpg
05/03/2006 08:44 PM 935,719 pscs2_q11.jpg
05/03/2006 08:44 PM 680,192 pscs2_q10.jpg
05/03/2006 08:45 PM 518,272 pscs2_q9.jpg
05/03/2006 08:45 PM 417,044 pscs2_q8.jpg
05/03/2006 08:45 PM 325,989 pscs2_q7.jpg
// PaintShopPro
// Scale: 001=best, 99=most compressed, Step: 10
05/03/2006 09:19 PM 2,043,316 psp001.jpg
05/03/2006 09:19 PM 604,858 psp011.jpg
05/03/2006 09:20 PM 412,090 psp021.jpg
05/03/2006 09:21 PM 253,443 psp031.jpg
05/03/2006 09:22 PM 173,935 psp041.jpg
// FastStone
// Scale: 100=best, 0=most compressed, Step: 10
05/03/2006 08:57 PM 1,448,278 fs100.jpg
05/03/2006 08:57 PM 536,514 fs90.jpg
05/03/2006 08:58 PM 371,597 fs80.jpg
05/03/2006 08:58 PM 299,198 fs70.jpg
// XnView
// Scale: 100=best, 0=most compressed, Step: 10
05/03/2006 08:51 PM 1,396,310 xn100.jpg
05/03/2006 08:52 PM 521,405 xn90.jpg
05/03/2006 08:52 PM 364,162 xn80.jpg
05/03/2006 08:52 PM 295,042 xn70.jpg
Isn't JPG great? Seriously...
My general point about the visual quality of JPGs
holds for these four applications. I don't see any
visual degradation in any of these images until you
get to around 6:1 or 8:1 compression from "original.tif."