Any tips for clear/sharp thumbs ?

[SeeNudity]

I look at a lot of the TGPs and galleries out there and see some people creating incredibly high quality thumbs. They are so clear and sharp, and mine don't typically touch that quality. I've been testing some of the sharpening filters and unsharp mask filters which seem to help. I typically crop my pics when making thumbs to try to remove some of the dead space or to draw attention to the focal point of the image.
Anyone have any recommendations on achieving high quality thumbs while still minimizing file sizes? I have ImageReady and Photoshop7 but am not opposed to looking at/using another product. Any tips or recommendations appreciated.

[stuveltje]

it could be the quality of the content you have and it cold be your puter , i have an oldie puter i work on and i have a new dell puter, me went WOW and i checked my sites and content on the new puter, biggggggggggggggggggg difference

[josho]

if you don't want to buy any additional software, you could run the 'sharpen' filter over them in photoshop. and if you play around with photoshop enough you'll probably find many other ways to increase the quality using filters, jpeg quality settings, etc.

i use 'Arles Image Web Page Creator' to create my thumbnails and it does a pretty good job in itself.

- josho

[cruelmoney]

I use photoshop 7.0. It has good option - save for web

[dareutwo]

Ulead Smartsaver for images-
Makes great image ready pics for galleries, tgps, and/or paysites.
(I don't do the paysite thing)

Not sure what it costs right now, but you should be able to make your price back in a month - Or less if you have a lot of traffic.

For thumbnails - photoshop... and yes, it's expensive.