HOW-TO: Image Preparation

[ted]

The small image is the thumbnail that shows up when you're looking at products in a category.

Medium image is shown when you view an individual product

The large image is shown when you click the medium image on the product page.

If you already hae your images sized it isn't necessary to use the image settings in admin (although you might use them to tweak image size a bit, especially if you're using extra images to get them to lay on the page the way you want them).

Thanks for your guidance on the directories/subdirectories Ryk, got that working today

[Ryk]

If you already hae your images sized it isn't necessary to use the image settings in admin

Not true - ZC will display the image at the size set in admin. I THINK (but haven't time to check) that if you leave the settings blank, that the pic may show at the size it is (or it may not show at all!!)

Thanks for your guidance on the directories/subdirectories Ryk, got that working today

Glad to be of help.

[kuroi]

if you leave the settings blank, that the pic may show at the size it is

Confirmed - In the absence of width and height, Zen Cart will use the actual dimensions of the image.

This is actually quite dangerous. It's quite common for Zen Cart users processing large numbers of images into three different sizes to accidentally leave the odd one or two at their original large size. Normally this only affects download times, but with no image sizes set, it will also *&%# up your layout. So the Admin settings give useful protection against this.

I would recommend against the earlier suggestion of using a 120x120px and having it downsized to 80x80. It is the visitor's browser who will do the downsizing. Safari's pretty good, IE7 is surprising competent, FF is OK just, IE6 ... well it's just best not to do it.

Another reason not to do it is 'cos 80x80 is too small (IMHO). I'd make my images at least 120x120 on the front page, and usually bigger. After all you want the people who come to your site to be able to see your products.

[kwizshow]

Ted, in regards to your post about running into too many images to display in FTP. I know Cuteftp will only display so many, I think its 2000 when your host has the settings as ProFTP vs other setting. You may want to ask them to change your ftp access setting, its a server wide setting so if its a large host, they may not do it. But they may or if you have your own server, I can walk you thru it depending on if its cpanel, plesk or ensim. If windows...sol.

[ted]

Thanks Derek,

That was the case and the host only offered the suggestion to reduce the number of images in the directories. They pointed out that it was in the UA (buried pretty deep) that users wouldn't exceed 2500 per directory. I tried FileZilla, CuteFTP and WSFTP but after googling a bit I found it was a common thing with hosts.

I downloaded all my large images and resized, renamed and split into separate directories. Took a couple of weeks but all's well now.

Just an FYI for anyone doing the 3 folders with subdirectories, I hadn't followed the Calico Cat example to the "t" and had named images 001, 001a and 001b (for example, not the complete name I used). As long as these were in the main image folders they worked fine, as soon as I moved them to subfolders I had to rename again and put in the underscore 001_a, 001_b etc. or they wouldn't "connect" with the 001 image anymore.

[libind]

I tried to activate the scroll bar as you said in image preparation. I set the scrollbars=yes.

Because I use iC_AcadameV1.2 as my template, which don't have such directory in /includes/modules/. I had to create iC_AcadameV1.2/pages/product_info. And I moved modified jscript_main.php to /includes/modules/iC_AcadameV1.2/pages/product_info. When I did everthing you said, I still can't find any change about the pop-up image, still no scroll bar for larger images.

Did I do anything wrong? Thanks!

[kuroi]

I tried to activate the scroll bar as you said in image preparation. I set the scrollbars=yes.

Because I use iC_AcadameV1.2 as my template, which don't have such directory in /includes/modules/. I had to create iC_AcadameV1.2/pages/product_info. And I moved modified jscript_main.php to /includes/modules/iC_AcadameV1.2/pages/product_info. When I did everthing you said, I still can't find any change about the pop-up image, still no scroll bar for larger images.

Did I do anything wrong? Thanks!

A search of this thread shows that you are the first person to discuss scrollbars here. Consequently your post makes no sense - were you trying to respond to a post in a different thread?

The directory structures to which you refer are advocated by one forum member only, the author of the template that you are using (and recommended against by the Zen Cart team). Maybe you really meant to post in your template's support thread?

[Jake]

Sorry to interrupt but I believe this is where I am supposed to ask a question about image prep, instead of starting a new thread? Hope so anyway.

Do I have to rename all my images before uploading? (I read the sticky and several posts regarding this topic. Seeking clarification here.)

My images are already named as follows:

[image_name]_tn (= thumb)
[image_name]_sm (= medium)
[image_name]_lg (=large)

I have already created folders:

images (for thumbs)
images/large (for large)
images/medium (for medium)

Thumbs range in size from 100 X 70 to 100 X 224 (All are 100 X xxx)
Medium range fr. 200 X 140 to 200 X 530.
Large are 400, 500, & 800 X 392 - 1500 (heights are varied).

If I were to load these as instructed, what is the likely outcome? Will it work?

I tried to find a free image editor that does batch file management. Any suggestions?

I have never used a batch editor. The instructions on this thread indicate it is a straight-forward process. I should have little trouble. I am operating in the dark on this so I hope to first review hear the cautions you might share with me.

Tks,
Jake

[Jake]

OK, well... No responses, eh? Ok, I'll close that last question out.

J

[chuck]

Do I have to rename all my images before uploading? (I read the sticky and several posts regarding this topic. Seeking clarification here.)

My images are already named as follows:

[image_name]_tn (= thumb)
[image_name]_sm (= medium)
[image_name]_lg (=large)

Yes, you'll need to rename your images.

Following your example above, Zen cart uses [image_name] as the base for all images. It doesn't support the _tn suffix

You could keep the _sm and _lg suffixes if you like -- you'll have to change the default _MED and _LRG suffixes in Admin | Configuration | Images if you plan to do that.
They still need to be uploaded to the appropriate "medium" and "large" folders.

NOTE: Just a reminder that Zen Cart only ever uses *one* "medium" image. You don't need more than 1 medium image.