Previewing an Image

Before you commit to saving your optimized image, you may want to see exactly how the image will appear in a Web browser window. Although the Save for Web optimized preview gives you a good approximation of how the final image will look, there's no substitute for seeing the image displayed in its natural environment.

Additionally, you can remain within the Save for Web dialog box to preview your image as if it were viewed on an older, lower-end system, limited to just 256 colors. This can be helpful, because it allows you to design primarily for most current computer systems while giving you the opportunity to fine-tune your settings to accommodate the limited display capabilities of older systems. Note that this is only a preview and has no affect on your actual image file and its settings.

To preview an image in a Web browser

1.	Open the image you want to preview, then choose File > Save for Web to open the Save for Web dialog box.
2.	At the bottom of the Save for Web dialog box, choose a Web browser or click the current browser icon on the Preview In drop-down menu (Figure 10.35). Figure 10.35. You can open your optimized image directly in a browser for previewing. The browser opens displaying the optimized image plus its dimensions and the settings you specified (Figure 10.36). Figure 10.36. When your image opens in a browser, it's accompanied by all of the settings you specified in the Save for Web dialog box.
3.	Close the browser window to return to the Save for Web dialog box.

To preview an image as it would display on older monitors

1.

From the preview menu in the Save for Web dialog box, choose Browser Dither (Figure 10.37). Figure 10.37. Select Browser Dither from the preview menu if you want to view your image using a limited Web-safe palette. The image in the optimized preview window appears just as it would on an 8-bit (256-color) monitor, allowing you to anticipate what this image will look like on older computer systems (Figure 10.38). Figure 10.38. When you select Browser Dither, the optimized preview changes to display your image as it would appear on an older, 256-color monitor.

2.

To turn off the browser dither preview, choose Browser Dither again from the preview menu.