Colors fade once graphic is posted to web

[CTWorion]

Why is it that the graphics I upload to the web, are so faded. All of the photoshop work that goes into creating a crisp, clear, vibrant image, goes out the window when I finally get the image online.

What's the best way to retain the colors and clarity in my images, but also keep the size as small as possible for quick loading online?

Thanks for your input.

[Poxicator]

when you're creating images for the web you need to balance the argument of small file size with quality of image. If you save any .jpg you'll lose some quality and the higher the compression the more quality you'll lose. Both .jpg and gif formats look at the image and decide what can be removed to achieve smaller file sizes.
Within PS you should save your images to web, choose jpg or gif, with maximum or high image quality, no dithering. You can optimise according to your high settings but you shouldn't try to save the file with smaller image quality if you don't want the image to suffer. One of the things saving to web does is remove the preview file which helps to remove unnecessary info but you might also want to save as index colour to reduce things further.
I'd suggest you open a file and save in a variety of formats/settings to find what's appropriate to your image/design.

[CTWorion]

Thanks. I guess I'll just keep playing with it, until I find something that works. I have started Saving to Web lately, and it definitely makes the images smaller, but I see color fading no matter what. Maybe I'll try changing their mode to indexed color. See what that does.

[Poxicator]

index colour will select the colours from your images and only have those colours present within the image. I'd guess your problems are arising from too much compression and dithering. Once you've established whats best I'd also suggest saving the settings for easy use later.

[banfangled]

I also find that working in the sRGB color space (rather than Adobe RGB, for example) in Photoshop gives a more accurate view of what the eventual web colors will look like.

[CTWorion]

Wow, thanks for the feedback. Those all sound like great suggestions.

[Poxicator]

I also find that working in the sRGB color space (rather than Adobe RGB, for example) in Photoshop gives a more accurate view of what the eventual web colors will look like.

quite right. Adobe rgb is a much bigger gamut than sRGB however sRGB is what most ppl use. Its colour spectrum is not as good as Adobe (or other forms of RGB) but its the default setting for many monitors. From a "lets get the best out of our images" sRGB is low on choice of gamut but for compatability its the best choice. The fact that sRGB was created due to the lack of understanding of colour is worrying from my own viewpoint however with all web images I have to consider a loss of image quality over d/l speed.