Forum photographs help

[John CutlerParticipant]

I notice that some of the photos I uploaded are poor quality compared to the originals. Some have been relabelled with a “scaled” prefix; what does that mean? Please can someone advise what the parameters are for uploading so I can crop and resize if necessary without loss of image quality? Is there an advantage in uploading .gif files rather than .jpg s? (I notice we cannot upload uncorruptible .tiff files, as used by the Tate, which are heavyweight!).

At present it is only possible to show images as thumbnails at the end of a posting. Can these not be inserted within the posting so they are in context sequentially?

You accept uploads in Word format. I have not tried this. If I upload a Word document containing an image, will it be accepted? This would solve the above problem. But again, what are the parameters for file size etc? Will the inserted image be subject to the same parameters (and image quality issues) as a photo upload? Or will it be worse because a file size restriction will reduce the photo size disproportionately?

I cannot help feeling that the EMGS forum is the poor relation of the Scalefour Society in this.

[Trade OfficerKeymaster]

HI john

Just picked this up. I assume you mean something like below

This an inline image that can be resized by clicking on it and grabbing the corner handles. By clicking on it you can also change how the text wraps around it

This is a feature that has been in from the start. It is on the menu bar at the top (see below)

 

Forum topic and reply menu

After clicking on it choose the camera and you can upload an image from your computer.

In terms of the upload quality etc I will need to investigate that.

 

John

 

[Stuart FirthParticipant]

Looking at some of the photos I have posted I’m sure that the way they are depicted has changed. With these too you can only see a ‘scaled’ image unless you actually download it whereas I’m sure they were fully visible within the post before.

[Trade OfficerKeymaster]

As far as I am aware there hasn’t been any change to the forum software or the media library where these photos are stored

Can you point to some examples so that I can have a look?

john

[John CutlerParticipant]

Thanks John

I see Nick Ridgway has immediately discovered how to insert photos within the text!

It would still be useful to know what the file parameters are for images, please.

Incidentally you should know that all compressed image file formats, including jpeg/jpg, deteriorate over time. Every time the file is opened, the image degrades a minute amount. This is why the Tate and other conservatory bodies archive their photographic images in tiff format which are very heavy in terms of file size. I guess that for the EMGS this degradation could only be relevant for popular posts in a few years’ time. However if your webhosting software is compressing/scaling the image further this degradation may occur a lot quicker.

[Trade OfficerKeymaster]

Hi John

The only parameters that are imposed are the file type and the overall size in mb. At present the maximum is 5Mb which is an arbitrary limit to have the balancing act between space and quality. This can be increased if needed. There obviously has to be a limit to avoid increased costs of file storage.

So the quality, resolution etc is down to you as long as it is within the maximum file size. I am not a graphic artist and so I can’t comment on that aspect

In terms of degradation over time, JPEGs etc do not deteriorate over time irrespective of the number of times they are downloaded. They will only deteriorate if you constantly edit and resave as the compression gets more aggressive. Once uploaded by the author they are never edited again, unless you choose to do so

The reason for using TIFFs is to maintain the quality and colour depth of the original as they are used as an archive for the original. Probably scanned at a high resolution as well. They are not compressed hence the size

I am still looking at what “scaled” means on the filename. i suspect it may be that when you upload it to the post and then resize it to fit then it tells the system that it needs displaying at a certain size but doesn’t affect what has been uploaded. But I will check

 

john

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