This is a resurrection of an old post that I never figured out, so another try...

I've got decent sized screenshots (example here (http://www.thriftysites.com/images/bigscreenshots/wrc.jpg)) that I'd like to make crisp and focused thumbnails of, like the ones here (http://www.majesticdesigns.com/portfolio_websites.htm).

I've used Photoshop (Elements) to save it JPG Max Quality down to 100-150 pixels but the best I can get is here (http://www.thriftysites.com).

How can I get really nice ones?

Are you resizing before you save? Or at the same time?

You should resize before you save, I think it uses different algorithms.

I've tried it umpteen ways:

I tried doing it 10% at a time, saving before each step down, as recommended on some sites,

I tried it in one chunk.

I tried it using the Batch Processing tool.

... all were about equal in quality. Poor.

... but now that I think of it, I did not try making a photo gallery out of the folder then seeing how good the thumbnails it makes are... I'll try that now...

Ill have a go with PSP.

The thumbnails that were made using the "Make Gallery" option also results in poor ones.

I half wonder if my original file is just not large enough (the originals are about 1/2 MB)...

Of course it's large enough, it's pixel perfect, perfect data.

In paint shop pro there are several option in the resize dialog, some of which give a much better result than others, is there something similar in PSE?

I can get something like this. Looks better than the one on your site.

I think it used bicubic resizing.

Yes. I see I've got 3 options:
Bicubic (which is the default setting I've used)
Biliner, and
Nearest Neighbor.

I also can choose the resolution.

Starting with a 1130x862 original, here are the three - each reduced to 120 px wide at a resolution of 100 p/i:

I also see that in the final step, I can choose Format Options
Baseline Standard
Baseline Optimized, or
Progressive.

I chose Baseline Optimized for the three.

Nearest Neighbor is obviously worthless... I don't see a difference, though, between bilinear and bicubic.

I don't suppose the guy whose thumbs I like will tell me how he did it, huh :o

I don't see why not, can't hurt to ask. I've done it several times and am surprised how often I get a helpful reply.

I found good looking thumbs here (http://studio.neverside.com/)too... and asked them on their forum (http://forums.neverside.com/thread/94752/). We'll see what comes of it.

Guys, we NEED this!

YouTube - Image resize (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIFCV2spKtg)

Discussion here: Digg - Advanced Photo Resizing [Vid] (http://www.digg.com/videos/educational/Advanced_Photo_Resizing_Vid)

Absolutely flipping amazing! Wow! Did I say Wow? If not, I meant WOW! :)

::drool::

Rick - when you are saving the resized image in Photoshop are you simply"saving" or are you "saving for web"? You probably already know this, but sometimes I forget some basic things, when I think too much about it.. The reason I ask is there are options to balace the quality of the picture and the size of the file. The jpegs are lossy so when you scale it down, it will lose quality unless properly saved... I would "save for web" and then use the two up feature to change the quality. It may help to use Unsharpen mask before saving as well.

There are hundreds of option combinations in SaveForWeb - I think at this point I've about tried them all. I found a bunch of "thumbnail maker" apps on the net and tried a couple... also with no luck. Since I'm finding them in abundance on the net I'm continuing to surf for an answer.

If I find it before someone pipes in with the magic trick, I'll post it here.

You know my favorite free tool: XnView (http://perso.orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enxnview.html)

The feature you want is under Tools > Sequence Convert (actions to be done in the 'Transformations' tab)

Lucky me. First try, got a problem. Will give 'er another go :)

Must be user error. Heh.

I guess it does not like my computer. Got the same thing 2nd try too :(

First time I ever hear of that. I got our company to buy license for it because it replaces PS for 80% of the image editing that people do here. Sorry Rick, not sure why that's happening to you.

Me neither. This computer's only a few months old too.