Making Attractive Gallery Thumbnail Images

Skill Level: Beginner / Views: 3023

One question that I see pop up in forums all the time is "How do I make a good image thumbnail in Photoshop?" I answered that question many times, and finally thought, "Hey, I'll write it all down as a tutorial." So here it is.


elizabyte on 7:53PM Tue, 26 July 2005

Thoughts on Thumbnails


One question that I see pop up in forums all the time is "How do I make a good image thumbnail in Photoshop?" I answered that question many times, and finally thought, "Hey, I'll write it all down as a tutorial." So here it is.

In a crowded, busy gallery full of images, a thumbnail is probably what will get people to look at your image. Make one that's over-compressed, too small, uninteresting, or, in some cases, too stereotyped, and you'll lose the chance to get the viewer's attention.

For the purposes of this tutorial, I'm making thumbnails that have a maximum size of 100 px by 100 px (or 100 px on the longest side). Naturally, different galleries have different requirements, but I thought 100 x 100 was a good size to work with in this case.

To make any thumbnail, regardless of size or style, you'll first want to prepare the image by making a duplicate of it (Image: Duplicate), and in the duplicate, flatten any/all layers.

Tutorial Comments

CFacile  7:14PM Wed, 09 July 2014

wow Thank you! Now I will be able to post my photomanipulation on the renderosity's gallery.  I was not able to reduce the weight before you talk about 'save for web'. Good job!

Zaimless  4:02PM Thu, 29 April 2010

Excellent Tut.. Thanks for all the help.. Zaimless

Str4wB34ry  6:56AM Fri, 02 April 2010

So that's how it's done! Thank you for some great guidance on thumbnail creation.

nikkis  2:11PM Wed, 30 September 2009

Thanks, thumbs always gave me soo much trouble

Epeaches  1:57PM Thu, 18 September 2008

Well done. Thank you for your clear, concise instructions and the illustrations help too ... I think I get it. Thank you again.

iridebikes6663  5:30PM Fri, 15 August 2008

omg thank you so much.

snooker  8:53AM Fri, 08 August 2008

most usefull

Billwht3  5:16PM Sun, 10 February 2008

This has been very helpful. I could get the dimensions right but the filesize drove me crazy! This was quick and easy. Thank you very much!

evielouise  8:35PM Sun, 09 December 2007

It said "say something"lol So I will The way I have always made my thumbnails is== I get my image all done save it and then simple go to NEW make a new image 100X100 copy my finished image to it and paste it to thumb as new layer merge all togehter "DONE" Just food for thought its fast and easy:::thank you for you tuts its also great:

one5910  4:29AM Sun, 02 December 2007

remembering than when you do not respect rules in computer or images sizing it takes memory from your PC or Mac and it can make your machine slow but also the server and all the system can goes down. you really need all to take care of the place you use and generate. jpeg is easy and fast and almaost alway stabile. almsot all programs allowed them and the tranfer and upload is quicker. it make programmors work also more easy when the sizes are corrects. use the functions for exemple like in photoshop save or the web, try to make maps where you organize your work the ones you have in your station originals ands those resized copies for the net. avatars only work with the sizes allowed, same as the images the site is wonderfull we must keep it going thanks to all of you Oneric. I asked by mail to be sponsored by google and you tube for my blog but that means that all the work but show a little respect even in art. I did placed a link at the bottom of my blog but i think it will be better with a logo or a frame i am waiting for a respons from the site managers when they are ready i hope they give green light, bye bye www.oneric.blogspot.com

novelist  10:56AM Mon, 26 November 2007

Thank you! Clear instructions and helpful information.

SMATT  4:24AM Fri, 20 April 2007

Thank You. I used to always use the save options under JPEG low-med res till it read 15K or less but your tut sounds much better. Thanks again. Matt.

Steelwings  7:16AM Tue, 27 March 2007

Thanks so much! This was very very helpful. Now I can finally make thumbnails for images I want to upload.

stick  4:17PM Mon, 15 January 2007

I'm going to try making a thumbnail, this tutorial looks like it's fairly simple. If I can make one I can finally upload some art here. Thanks.

VJD-Communication  5:41AM Fri, 20 October 2006

G'Day Elizabyte, Thank you for the tutorial on Making Attractive Gallery Thumbnail Images. I found it very informative and much appreciated. Regards, Ian

woaryong  8:45AM Thu, 23 February 2006

TAXIFUNK  9:03AM Wed, 12 October 2005

Very good contribution done well! Not all forums have good tutorials on internal things for the forum or operation of sites and personal pages themselves. Example image ideally selected, quite a lot explained on 5 graphically clean pages with a layout accentuating only the message + illustration. Meantime I found a free tool thumbnail creator 2005 by ITSRS for those forced to avoid photoshop for just the thumb. In the gallery for personal member photos, whats new, I saw how ingenious an ANIMATED thumb .gif looks, compression to 15k was quite a success in an anim, I think. Anyway, thanx!!!
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