Picture Size - Please limit to 640x480 approximately

Ron Earp · 12-03-01, 01:16 AM

Hey Folks,

Can we keep the picture size down to something like 640x480? Lots of people on the board are using 56k modems and some of the larger pics are even choking my cable modem.

If we cannot try to keep these to reasonable sizes we'll probably have to remove the image option in order to maintain readability on the board. Thanks,

Ron

Russ Noble · 08-09-05, 03:01 AM

Sorry,I'm struggling here a wee bit. The minimum resolution setting on my camera is 1280x960. How do I get these down to a size suitable to post? Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

Ross Nicol · 08-09-05, 03:46 AM

Russ I use a programme called pix resizer it's available as a free download.You load the large pic in change the size down to 640x480 or similar and then save it.The good thing is the new title keeps the size so you don't get confused which one's which.By the way did you race a can am type car at Teretonga in the 70's if so, there is a photo of you in my Teretonga 25 book.I'm listed at a meeting 4th april 1971 driving a 1340 Anglia,seems like yesterday.
Ross

Craig White · 08-09-05, 03:48 AM

Ron, In my opinion the best thing to do would be lower the file size limit from 350000 bytes to around 100000 bytes or less. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

My images are less than 50k, when reduced to 640x480, saved as 70-80% quality JPG. Still very useable.

To reduce the size of images and quality, will need to use image viewer/manipulation software. One of the smallest and simplest is Irfanview. Available for free download. http://www.irfanview.com/ Most digital cameras come supplied with reasonable image manipulation software.

The last resort would be to remove hosting images... [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Peter D · 08-09-05, 06:13 AM

Ron, please don't go back to the old 100k limit - I had an aweful struggle to get pics that looked any good at this res (but they looked fine at 150k-200k).

Is there some option in the BBS s/w (or their browsers) for 56k modem users to set so that they just get an icon instead of a full pic when viewing a thread (but allows them to d/click on the icon to get the pic if they choose) ?

Another option might be to change the creation of "pages" to reflect the full content (text + pics) & keep a "page" to a reasonable size so as to allow the 56k guys to just download a page in a reasonable time ?

I reckon that the worst-case option of removing hosted images would be a disaster - back in the old days when you changed from linked images to hosted ones, the wealth of info that suddenly became available via the pics was brilliant. Even with linked pics, the 56k guys would still have a problem with download speed, so the option of no pics at all would be the only real way of sorting this out - a horrible alternative !

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

Bill Musarra · 08-09-05, 07:19 AM

I agree with Peter. There are a ton of digital picture manipulation software out there that is free and easy to use. Most have an option about saving the pictures in a "web ready" format. Just follow the directions. I use Picture it. It is free and not one of the high calibre programs with 50 options. It has automatic options for brightness and contrast. Croping and the like are very easy. All the pics on "DRB #5" were done that way. When you save them in the "web ready" option, you have a size choice of small medium and large as well as original size. Look at the size of the pic in each and see how much it is compressed from the original. It is from 1/10th to 1/100th the size. All the free progams are simple to operate, and I would hate to see the posting of pics to go away. It would kill a lot of interest in the forum and make some of the problems impossible to solve, or visualize.
Maybe we could allocate some space on the forum with a tuttorial on "how to post (pics) to the forum" with a posting section for questions and answers for specific problems?? Is that plausable? I am no expert, but I would be willing to add my $.02 to it to help out.

Bill

Bill Bayard · 08-09-05, 07:46 AM

Photo size is VERY easy to manipulate with Windows "Paint".

Most, if not all Windows operating systems include the Paint program.

To use: Right click on the photo, then Open With: Paint. Left click on "Stretch & Skew"(at the top), and adjust height and width accordingly, by reducing the height and width values. Simple!

Bill

Russ Noble · 08-09-05, 08:11 AM

Craig, I tried irfanview but couldn't seem to get it to work. Probably doing something wrong!! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Ross, this download of yours seems simple, can you give me details please?
That was me at Teretonga in the CanAm type car. I held lap records in that at most tracks in the country at the time.[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img] Teretonga was my favorite circuit, closely followed by Pukekohe but the extended Ruapuna at 3.3 km is now right up there too. Your GT40 is a far cry from a 1340 angle box!! The years have indeed been kind to you.

To other people reading these posts let me explain that I did a search on "picture size" and Rons post from 2001 came up I have just rejuvenated it from four years ago. I don't think too much should be read into his four year old statement, a lot has probably changed since then.

Thanks to everyone for their replies so far.

Russ Noble · 08-09-05, 08:15 AM

Thanks Bill, I might see if I can try that one, your post came in whilst I was replying to the others

Ron Earp · 08-09-05, 10:25 AM

Yep, that is an old thread!

Even though the post is four years old and 56k modems are largely (not completely!!!!) a thing of the past, I really don't want "large" pictures on the site, that is, larger than around 800x600 since that is all that will comfortably fit into a browser window on most computers. I'll set that limit around 200k, that should handle most all pics.

Another reason to not go larger is that we'll have a gallery section in a couple of months, that is a gallery that is tied to your user profile where you can upload pictures. Those can be larger if people want to have a look. But, that comes with a lot of other cool features on the new forum software, but I don't want to let the kat out of the bag too early!

Ron

Craig White · 08-09-05, 07:04 PM

[ QUOTE ]

Another reason to not go larger is that we'll have a gallery section in a couple of months
Ron

[/ QUOTE ]

Woohoo a gallery. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Now that will be a fantastic feature...works a treat on Club Cobra. Can't wait to see the other improvements.

200k is heaps in my books and a very reasonable limit. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I can understand the problem...no one likes pages that are slow to load. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Lukas Matzinger · 08-09-05, 09:06 PM

I HAVE JUST WHAT EVERYBODY NEEDS! Go to microsoft power toys and download the image resizer. Here is the direct link http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...ertoySetup.exe

When you have installed it, you just right click on any picture, select the size you want and click ok -> DONE! It saves it right next to the old picture with the same name and "...-small" added.

This should help out some of you guys and is much quicker to use than anything else like paint etc.

Lukas

Chris Martino · 08-09-05, 09:50 PM

Guys - I can tell you from a graphics designer's perspective that you don't need to upload your photos with any more than 96 dpi - even 72 dpi is reasonable. Your monitors work in those ranges and so make no use of anything above 96 dpi.

Also remember - garbage in, garbage out. A small pixelated picture won't get any better by throwing more dpi at it. Start with a good clean large photo and hit it with a 96 dpi resample and you're good to go (jpg files are a must). Physical file size of 640 x 480 is more than enough for this application.

Hope that helps.

Chris

Alex Hirsbrunner · 08-09-05, 10:44 PM

My 2 cents: Picasa (free from Google) does a nice job as well. http://picasa.google.com/index.html

Regards,

Al H.

Craig White · 08-09-05, 11:08 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I HAVE JUST WHAT EVERYBODY NEEDS! Go to microsoft power toys and download the image resizer..

Lukas

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks Lukas, you are a legend. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Works really well and is pretty aggressive on file size as well. Works out to be about the same file size as 75% quality in Irfanview.

BenL · 08-09-05, 11:31 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I HAVE JUST WHAT EVERYBODY NEEDS! Go to microsoft power toys and download the image resizer..

Lukas

[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks Lukas, you are a legend. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Works really well and is pretty aggressive on file size as well. Works out to be about the same file size as 75% quality in Irfanview.

[/ QUOTE ]
How does the quality of the image look? Some programs will do a quick resize and will make any diagonal line in the image look stepped.

BenL · 08-09-05, 11:36 PM

BTW, another reason for using a image size limit such as 640x480, is that if someone includes a wide image to the forum, you'll have to scroll left and right to read the long lines of text (for example in the recent thread about Alfas, one of the photos is 768x1024)

Craig White · 08-10-05, 01:54 AM

[ QUOTE ]
How does the quality of the image look? Some programs will do a quick resize and will make any diagonal line in the image look stepped.

[/ QUOTE ]

PowerToy Resize is no worse at that than Irfanview...so I'm happy. Any aggressive moves to shrink size of image is going to result in diagonal lines looking stepped, especially with this sort of software...I can live with the output of PowerToy. Algorithm they use can't be too bad.

The faster and easier it is, the better when it comes to image resizing when used in forums like this. I use Photoshop for more critical resizing.

Craig White · 08-11-05, 03:10 AM

Just posted a couple of 640x480 photos in my build thread. Click here if you want to see them.

Used Powertoy Resize - Selected all files I wanted to resize, right click, select Resize, click ok...all done.

Files ended up around 30k. A little stepping is apparent, but for size they are fantastic. They do have a lot of plain areas, so that would help with compression(file size) a little.