Pushing JPEG to the limit

Convensional wisdom suggests that if an image contains "text" then it will
either have to be saved as a GIF or as a low compression JPEG. Otherwise
the text will become fuzzy and show artifacts. This is no longer true.

There are a few programs available now which allow you to protect certain
areas of your image when using JPEG compression. I have been using one
called JPEG OPTIMIZER from http://www.xat.com/ and it is great.

With this application you can set three different levels of compression
throughout an image. This allows me to use heavy compression on the
unimportant bits, medium on the general features and almost none on the
sensitive areas such as text. Take a look at my title graphic at
http://www.ozcraft.com/scifidu/ it is 10% of its uncompressed size and yet
the text is still crisp and the artifacts are not too evident.

Does anyone use similar software and would like to comment?

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