How Do I Upload Pictures without loss of quality?

Hello. When I try to upload a picture, I notice in the previewer that it has lost quite a bit of quality, and the image is somewhat blurred. What tips do I need to follow in order to prevent this sort of thing from happening?

I am saving in my photoshop, quality up to 12, in .jpeg format. I am using a 1 to 1 ratio (it is a group picture I am trying to upload).

I sharpened the image, but even after doing that, it was blurry.

For best results all images should be sized to powers of 2 (64, 128, 256, 512) in both dimensions. If your image has other dimensions, SL will resize it for you on upload and you're likely to lose quality. Even if you need to manually resize the image in your graphics program as a last step before uploading, you'll probably get vastly better results than just letting SL do it because your graphics program will use a more sophisticated scaling algorithm.

Or it might be something else entirely, but that's a very common issue.

I notice you're quite new so perhaps you aren't aware that it's normal for an image to be a blurred for a short time after it uploaded? Sometimes a freshly uploaded image may appear to be stuck at this stage due to a poor connection or server issues or whatever.

Another curious behaviour I noticed recently is that an uploaded image seems to take forever to sharpen if the SL window is collapsed while the process has yet to finish. Normally this takes no longer than a minute on my system.

One final point is that I think older viewers allowed us to choose 'use lossless compression' for image files on upload. Choosing the option would result in an image that seemed to take forever to load even though I never noted a visible improvement in the quality of the final result. The latest viewer limits that option to sculpt maps and the checkbox is greyed out for uploading normal images.

Since you are quite new, I imagine you are using the latest viewer but, just in case you are using a third party viewer that still allows the option, check to make sure you are not using lossless compression.

ETA: I read somewhere on these forums that a new image can sometimes take as much as a day to render sharply in SL. This isn't the norm but it happens and I believe it is something to do with the management of asset files on the server. I have seen this happen on one or two occasions much to my frustration and annoyance.

Just saw this - DON't use JPEG Format - Linden converts to jpeg2000 internally with losss of quality and recommends to use .TGA or .PNG formats.

Furthermore, upload converts to some standard-size of powers of 2 and expands back to the size of the actual picture used.

Aspect Ratio's of pictures:
1:1 Use this aspect ratio for:
Group insignias
1st Life profile tab pictures

4:3 Use this aspect ratio for:
2nd Life profile tab pictures

10:7 Use this aspect ratio for:
Search
Classifieds
Popular Places
Land Sales
Places
About Landmark

3:2 Use this aspect ratio for:
The About Land window

16:9 Use this aspect ratio for:
Profile picks

Wol,
SL Guided Tours

There's a forum called Texturing Tips that is chock full of tips on how to make textures for use in SL, a good many of which suggestions are in some stickied threads at the top of the Texturing Tips forum.

Your note says that you notice loss of quality when you look at the image in the previewer. That's quite normal. The previewer is a low-resolution viewer, like a thumbnail. It's there just to assure you that you are uploading the right image and, in a very limited sense, to give you a quick glimpse at what the image will look like in world. Those of us who make clothes use it as a last-minute "AHA!" idiot check -- that's when we suddenly realize that we forgot to turn on/off some crucial layer before saving a Photoshop image. Don't expect great quality there. As Suzanne says, visit the Texture Tips forum and read the sticky thread on File Sizes and Formats at the top of it. THAT's where you learn about how to guarantee quality in the actual uploaded image.

Thanks everyone. I still feel that the quality is lost, even outside the previower, but it could be because I am using .jpeg format. I will try to use the other formats you suggested. I am saving in the ratio dimensions that I had gotten from the portal that was provided above...and I noticed that it will save it to say, 128x128, then smack it onto the picture (like a profile picture) to the ratio for that use. I am wondering if that does cause a bit of quality loss as well. I was considering squishing the layers a bit, saving in a square dimensions, then hoping that it looked right when going back to the ratio of 4:3 or whatever my pic is for...but I don't know if that would cause more loss without trying...and wanted to experiment in photoshop with it to get it right.

I did notice that for my group pic, the quality looked bad but today looks better. I wonder if indeed it does take a while for the server to improve quality or whatever happens to make it better over that 24 hour period.

I will also check the textures forums. Since I was referring to actual photographs, I had thought maybe the gallery was the best place to ask, since it wasn't a texture for say, a rug, wall, or clothing item.

Everyone was so nice to help. I appreciate your time. If anyone has more tips or advice to give, I would appreciate it very much!!!

We don't have any Edit control in SL over the way an image is applied to a Profile, LM, or whatever, so we can't use the Repeats and Offsets tricks that we use on prims. That means we're stuck doing pre-squishing or stretching before we upload an image, and we have to live with the degraded quality. It's a bummer, but at least profile pics are only postage stamp size. Even a degrraded 256x256 image still looks pretty good at that size.

Thanks. I will probably aquish it, then pop the dimensions to the ratio size for the pic I am using in photoshop to preview how it will end up looking before saving. Doing so this way would save me some wasted upload lindens and probably save me the headache. I am also going to experiment saving at the ratio and then allowing sl to do it's thing and compare...it's only 20 lindens to experiment. Thanks so much.

Here is a tip you can try. Get your image just as you want it in your editor, then just give it a standard sharpen in PS before upload. Naturally in your editor it will look too sharp but by the time you have it uploaded into SL it will look better.