Fuzzy Images Becaues Zencart Auto resizes.. How Can I Overcome?

[steve_ringuk]

Hi

I upload an image of my product onto zencart, and this is a high res image. Zen cart then breaks the image down into 2 smaller sizes, the thumbnail size for the overall view of my products, and then a medium size for the product image on the products own page. And then when the customer clicks that medium image it loads up an enlarged image which is my hi-res image.

Is there a way I can manually resize the images myself to the 2 smaller sizes (thumbnail view and medium view), because i can do it on photoshop and it will be clear not fuzzy, and then put them onto zencart and say use this image for the thumbnail use this for the product page image etc.

Because at the moment zencart takes the one image and resizes itself.

Many Thanks

Steve

[rainthebat]

Yes, there are two folders in your images directory 'medium' and 'large'. So, when you go to upload your image, upload the thumbnail size image first when creating a new product. For example, you have a picture of a tractor and you upload that to the folder images/tractors/tractor.jpg. This picture is the small thumbnail picture of the tractor that you are uploading.

Next you go into your large directory folder that I mentioned earlier and create the same directory structure as that of your images folder. So there would be a large/tractors folder created among your other categories. Now you can upload a large image of your tractor into that folder, but you also have to add a _LRG to the end of the name but before the .jpg. So you upload tractor_LRG.jpg into images/large/tractors.

Zen Cart will automatically load the thumbnail image for all small images, and when you actually click the product image, it will finally load the big image for the first time.

I believe you can do this for the medium images as well, using the same method, except having the extension of _MED. I am not 100% sure on this one though, so you may want to test to see if its true.

[madmumbler]

Fuzzy/squished images: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=30
Multiple images (med/large): https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=58

HTH,

[rainthebat]

Thanks MadMumbler, I learned quite a bit from that second tutorial.

[yellow1912]

First: use IH2
Second: if your images sizes vary, in Admin->Configuration->images either set height or width, do not set both

[GSIS]

Can't say better than yellow.

Use the Image Handler 2 mod. It really does make sorting your images out almost child's-play.

This is one mod that should be merged into the off-the-shelf Zen Cart.

[madmumbler]

Thanks MadMumbler, I learned quite a bit from that second tutorial.

You're welcome. There are a lot of tutorials in the FAQ section a lot of people don't even know are there. And in the wiki.

[rainthebat]

Use the Image Handler 2 mod.
This is one mod that should be merged into the off-the-shelf Zen Cart.

Image Handler 2 doesn't take too kindly to hi-res images - it sort of likes to do its own thing and make them its own large size. This may be unacceptable if you are trying to show your customer close ups of the product.

To get a great image that is hi-res, don't use image handler, but do go ahead and follow that tutorial that madmumbler gave a link to earlier

I recommend handling images on your own if you think you can do it. Part of handling images on your own may require a good customizable editor such as Paint Shop Pro.

[steve_ringuk]

Thanks for all the help. You all answered my question perfectly

Cheers

Steve