Was going to write something about saving screenshots and found this suggestion by ala42. Seems like it hasn't been fixed/improved in the latest versions.

Having seen many people still using JPG when capture screenshots, plus many people especially those who have broadband connection seem to be unaware of the fact that many people in many parts of the world still using 56kbps modem, I would like to take this opportunity to illustrate to everyone who still using JPG why you shouldn't use it when capture screenshots. I'm not gonna talk much but please look at the quality and filesize of each of the images below.

1. PNG saved by CD-DVD Speed. 36,396 bytes.


2. JPG saved by CD-DVD Speed. 84,751 bytes. Look at the quality of the image. Notice the filesize.


3. capture the screenshot manually and save it as PNG. 24,112 bytes. Same quality as [1] but smaller. This is what ala42 was talking about and could be improved in CD-DVD Speed.


4a. capture the screenshot manually and save it as JPG with Compression Factor = 1. 314,154 bytes. Quality is as good as PNG. But the file is too large.


4b. capture the screenshot manually and save it as JPG with Compression Factor = 5. 194,596 bytes. Quality is still good. Filesize is smaller than [4a] but still large compared to PNG.


4c. capture the screenshot manually and save it as JPG with Compression Factor = 10. 143,760 bytes. You can see that the quality of the area surrounding the text is starting to become fuzzy. Filesize is smaller than [4b] but still large compared to PNG.


4d. capture the screenshot manually and save it as JPG with Compression Factor = 20. 106,265 bytes.


4e. capture the screenshot manually and save it as JPG with Compression Factor = 30. 74,368 bytes. This is almost equivalent to JPG saved by CD-DVD Speed [2]. I think CD-DVD Speed uses Compression Factor = 28.


5. let's have a look at PNG in [3] again. It can still be improved because the number of colors can still be reduced. For example, the filesize can be a lot smaller if it is reduced to 256 colors. You can see a bit of quality reduction due to the use of gradient as graphs' background. 14,603 bytes.


6. if the gradient is not used, the quality would be exactly the same as the original, with smaller filesize of course. 13,760 bytes.


As you can see, using the default PNG instead of JPG in CD-DVD Speed gives you pleasant-looking images with much smaller files. It can save more than half the traffic and half the time to download on each image. Moreover, CD-DVD Speed can still be improved by not using "background 2" by default for themes (e.g., Bright, High Contrast) to avoid the gradient effect AND reduce the colors to 256 or less when saves.

As for the option to save as JPG, I personnaly think it should be removed or hidden from average users. I don't see any benefit of using JPG in CD-DVD Speed at all.

JPG is not set as default image format in CD-DVD Speed. I wonder why many people still save it as JPG. Did they change the setting in CD-DVD Speed from PNG to JPG manually? If so, anyone know why?

Moderators: I hope it's ok for my post to be here. If not, feel free to slit it to a new thread.