Image Scaling

[gjh42]

ETA: Unless I misunderstood and what you mean giving shopowners the choice of:

Yes, that's what I meant. And it appears to be addressed sufficiently by Nick's latest post. The file size vs. dimensions is grounds for further discussion.

[DivaVocals]

Yes, that's what I meant. And it appears to be addressed sufficiently by Nick's latest post. The file size vs. dimensions is grounds for further discussion.

I thought so.. After I re-read it I realized WHO I was questioning, and quickly realized the err of my post..

[niccol]

On the verge of posting the next version but have a few questions:

1. Additional Images.
I believe it is correct that the additional image needs to be the same type/extension as the main image. What do you think is the best way of handling that? At the moment the additional image uploader saves the image with the correct image extension (not necessarily its own original extension) So basically the type is changed to match the main image. Is that the right way of going or would it be better to alert the user that the types need to be the same which is kind of more in keeping with the Zen standard?

2. Further to that.
I am working on the 'replace' the original main image function that was suggested. Here the problem is the additional images again. I am renaming them so that they still appear as additional images after the replacement. But, if the new main image is a different type should I look at changing the type of the additional images too. Or is it all right to alert the user that the replacement needs to be the same file type as the original if there are additional images in place? Perhaps this is just laziness?

Advice gratefully accepted. Going around in circles thinking about it.

3. I am changing my opinion a little bit about watermarking. Here's the thing. It would be nice to be able to turn it off an on. If it happens on upload then you can never get rid of it. So, I am thinking that maybe it should happen when the images are scaled? Again opinions appreciated. I have included a admin configurable option to 'always scale' even if the image is the right size already. This produces duplicate large images in some circumstances but means that the only images on the site are scaled images which in turn means that you could turn watermarking on and then clear all the scaled images and all the images on the site would then be watermarked. And vice versa.

think that is it for the moment.

[DivaVocals]

1. Additional Images.
I believe it is correct that the additional image needs to be the same type/extension as the main image. What do you think is the best way of handling that? At the moment the additional image uploader saves the image with the correct image extension (not necessarily its own original extension) So basically the type is changed to match the main image. Is that the right way of going or would it be better to alert the user that the types need to be the same which is kind of more in keeping with the Zen standard?

Not to keep bringing up Image Handler, but in IH3, if additional images uploaded are not the same format as the main image, then the UI now includes a display which shows the file type/file suffix, and it highlights the "errant" image suffix in red so that it's clear to the end user that the image is not going to display. (May add more on-screen text in the next IH update to help drive this home a little more)

2. Further to that.
I am working on the 'replace' the original main image function that was suggested. Here the problem is the additional images again. I am renaming them so that they still appear as additional images after the replacement. But, if the new main image is a different type should I look at changing the type of the additional images too. Or is it all right to alert the user that the replacement needs to be the same file type as the original if there are additional images in place? Perhaps this is just laziness?

Functionality in Image Scaler should be consistent.. All image filetypes for each product should be the same. Therefore if the main image is a PNG, then all additional images and replacement images need to be PNGs as well.. Now you can either convert the images on the fly to the correct format or notify the end user of the issue so that they can upload the correct image type. Image Scaler needs to support this..

3. I am changing my opinion a little bit about watermarking. Here's the thing. It would be nice to be able to turn it off an on. If it happens on upload then you can never get rid of it. So, I am thinking that maybe it should happen when the images are scaled? Again opinions appreciated. I have included a admin configurable option to 'always scale' even if the image is the right size already. This produces duplicate large images in some circumstances but means that the only images on the site are scaled images which in turn means that you could turn watermarking on and then clear all the scaled images and all the images on the site would then be watermarked. And vice versa.

Watermarking is indeed a USEFUL and necessary image management feature.. IMHO (not to bring up IH3 again) it was one of the nice inclusions to Image Handler's feature set.

I have clients who are in an industry where there are a LOT of "Johnny Come Lately's" who rather than use their own images for their products will routinely STEAL images from their competitors instead.. (and you wouldn't BELIEVE the nasty messages I have exchanges with other so-called web "professionals" when asking them to take these "borrowed" images down) Clearly protecting their images as best they can is important. So watermarking is an important feature to these clients. Any image management module, needs to include this to be completely useful IMHO.

In IH3, watermarking occurs upon scaling and saving the images to the bmz_cache folders. The original images are left intact. This way if watermarking is turned off, and the bmz_cache folders are cleared, new non-watermarked images will be generated and saved to the the bmz_cache folders.

[niccol]

so how does IH deal with watermarking on a large image when the original is used?

[niccol]

regarding additonal image file types that was my question really. do we want to convert as they are uploaded or alert the user to the issue that they need to be the same file type?

[DivaVocals]

so how does IH deal with watermarking on a large image when the original is used?

Remember that IH scales ALL three sizes and loads them into the bmz_cache. (large image dimension settings are an admin configurable option added by IH) So the only images watermarked are those in the bmz_cache folder.. The original images are ALWAYS untouched..

[DivaVocals]

regarding additonal image file types that was my question really. do we want to convert as they are uploaded or alert the user to the issue that they need to be the same file type?

Depends on are you talking an actual file conversion or simply "renaming" the file while the underlying filetype remains unchanged.. The former is a bad idea for reasons I don't even need to state here..

But the latter is a bigger concern IMHO.. The thought of GIFs being converted on the fly to PNGs makes me cringe..

I think that Image Scaler should either notify the end user of the issue before any image uploading/processing happens OR allow the upload, but flag the errant image as a problematic image. With all the appropriate on-screen notices to help the end user SEE the issue.

[niccol]

Thanks for the advice. Certainly just advising the user that the additional images need to have the same extension as the main image is by far the easiest option for me and it seems to work for Zen.

Well gifs make me cringe anyway, to be honest. It is a weak image format in my opinion but there you go and I know that it is still used.

Nice features coming up are 'sharpen' which works really well in my opinion. I was kind of surprised how well that worked but so many carts have it so it better be in the mix.

Watermarking is 50% done. And that's the last thing before I post the next version.

[bn17311]

all sounding good so far, cant wait to try it

bryan