Why are my images so fuzzy?

My web site: https://www.mydogstig.com is having problems, my images look more
like badly woven, though interesting, native rugs.

While this attribute is unique, I wonder, what the heck is happening?

As well as my images, my buttons are also bearing this effect. . . .
I thought - since Zen Cart was down this morning - it was a wide spread
thing and would be resolved, and it was for about five hours.

Alas, no more! Help! I need help!

Your problems are not related to the Zen-Cart.com server problem that happened earlier today. There could be no correlation.

First, the center image on your home page is 1.5 MB in size ... that's absolutely ludicrous for a website. Anyone on a slow connection will have to wait 5 min for it to load ... and most would leave before it did.

Second, what version of Zen Cart are you using?
What addons do you have installed?

Third, look at the bottom of this page, under "Similar Threads" for tips on optimizing images, dealing with fuzzy images, etc.

Okay. The ludicrously sized image cannot be altered as of present due to the
problem I am having.

I am using the latest version of Zen.
Add ons.....goggle "buy now" button - though the problem began before it was installed.

Also, I just read the older posts: I altered the configuration code within minutes of
Zen installation. And I have not moved the index directory etc...

From a quick glance, I would say that ALL your images need proper optimisation - it looks as if none of them have been properly prepared for the web and they are all certainly FAR larger in terms of filesize than they should be.

Gosh. No need to get snippy: the images are all jpg formated via photoshop;
cannot really fathom how they can be too big, unless it's the banner images
to which you are referring - otherwise, the shop's items have been taken down.

I think it's something your photoshop settings is causing. Either that or you need to export lower-resolution images.

For example, your category image is listed as this:
http://mydogstig.com/images/categories/SLICES-ONE_07.jpg

When I open that in my browser, it opens at its native resolution, which is 1092x930 pixels.
Yet, your Zen Cart configuration is set to display it at a maximum width of 250 px, making the height 213 px. Scaling an image on-the-fly by such a sizable amount is going to result in grainy images.
Not to mention the original 1092x930 image is ... well ... rather grainy too.

It would seem that your graphics themselves are the problem ...

I was just coming to this conclusion....although still am baffled: have had the same
images up for a few months and had no problems. Weird?

HOWEVER, I wasn't using photoshop then !

You're brilliant!

Wait, wait....before I dive into this as a solution, let me further explain to you
that this is effective not just my images. Everything is fuzzy ie. buttons in the
admin area etc.....

I wonder too, are photoshop images compatible with Zen Cart?

All the original buttons that come with Zen Cart were built using Photoshop.

If you have a copy of the images on your PC and they view differently on the PC than they do on the website after uploading them, then perhaps either your browser is foofed or your server has some problem delivering the images. You'll have to talk to your server administrator about that.

If the images on your PC show the same as they do on your webserver, then perhaps your photoshop settings need some tweaking.

I have copies of the images on my PC. They are fine. The "fuzzy" image of the
beach is altered, it's supposed to have a "fuzzy" face.

The Zen Cart logos and buttons both are altered, or fuzzy.

I changed one of my images 125x125 with the lowest resolution setting possible.
Still, no change. Also, I changed some text on my heading. It does not show up
on the site.

Hummm......?

My server, hugh? That could be....