I do that also many times with my May, Andre, and it is indeed a small help. But, the magnification of a downsized thumb alone is never perfect, since the downsized image lacks many too many of the real existing pixels of the original. So, what we get is a more or less "fuzzy" representation of a thumb whose size is enlarged but whose missing pixels dictate interpolation algorithms in order to display it enlarged. I attach an image for better explaing what I mean.
A PNG, as far as I know, can be *displayed" as a thumb, though it still contains the number of pixels of the original. This is also possible with a JPG via markups that set up the dimensions of the displayed image without really downsizing it, but then too many artefacts occur that lower the quality of the thumb, and also keep the loading time of the HTML page high, since the bytes of the image remain the same.
Hi Nick. With my new pc set up, I can easily set my web pages to view at 125% or 150% for a little better viewing of the thumbs. The only trouble with this is when I want to look at a larger image, I have to change the screen back to 100% to keep the quality as intended. Still more mouse clicks than I want to do :) But worth it at times :) Andre
Yes, also the opposite way, Andre, when clicking on a thumb that promises so much, and after that the promises turn ti thin air - many of my shots are definitely of that kind. :-D
But this is indeed a problem. Less and bigger thumbs would make a given photo more "visible" already at thumb size, but it would also take away much of the overview of a collection on each page. On the other hand more and smaller thumbs does provide the latter but diminishes the previewing possibilities of some particular photo.
As a side note and question here, isn't it that the PNG-format allows a very fast resizing on the fly? If so (and only if) then chosing this format for the images, would provide a possibility for the user to chose his/her settings that determine the size of the thumbs, that would then be resized on delivering the overview HTML pages of some photographer, and also eliminate the need to keep separate thumb copies of the photos in some DB. (Just thoughts for my own photo-server that will come up in the next few hundred years. ;-))
Exactly Nick. It is one of the main problems with the thumbnail presentation. I think I would probably be tempted to open many more images if they were three times bigger in the thumbnails. It works both ways. Sometimes we are tempted by an effective thumbnail, only to find that the image wasn't as good as we thought. Andre
Hi Andre, and many thanks for the nice and detailed comment. Indeed, it seems to me that often a subtle coloring enhances the geometry in a not so "screaming" but quite nice way. But I guess also that this makes the thumb itself a bit too... silent, especially when in presence of many much more vibrant thumbs, since on the thumb the geometry is not very visible. Anyway, I am very glad that you like it.
Hi Nick, Simple... maybe, but effective. If only more people would take the time to open the thumbnail. This ls a very pleasent abstract with subtle colouring like most of the multiple exposures you have posted lately. I like the idea of the mixed geometry in this one. Andre
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