I know, coming in to this very late. Might not be relevant anymore.
We have our own ideas about what size a thumbnail image is, but we wanted your input about how you'd define "high res" and "low res" images for Fanlore.
IMO (not so humble, based on 10 yrs experience in digital imaging industries), high-res is 300dpi *at original size*; low-res is about 150 dpi and under. 72 or 90 dpi, good for screen viewing, are definitely low res; a 150 dpi letter-sized page can be perfectly readable if printed out as half-letter (and is readable at 150, just somewhat pixelated.)
The problem with DPI and filesize as standards: DPI has to be connected to original image size (measurements, not filesize), or it's irrelevant. Most people who upload images may be working with default scanner or photo settings and that'll happen on its own; digital image techies (like, ahem, me) will be tinkering with every aspect of the numbers.
A letter-sized page is 2550x3300 pixels at 300dpi. Change it to 72 dpi without resampling, and it's ~34"x46"--at the same filesize. This happens to a lot of people accidentally when they're changing settings in images; how to set for resampling instead of just changing the DPI depends on what program they're using.
Filesize limits are a problem because color is *much* bigger than B&W; a letter-sized page at 200 dpi, bitonal instead of greyscale, in PNG, is less than 50kb. And that's high enough res to read comfortably on the screen, print out without too much hassle, and even OCR. (With errors. Good OCR starts at 300 dpi; great OCR takes 400 dpi.) By dropping to 125 dpi (screen readable, a bit pixelated), an 8-page story can fit in a 200kb PDF.
This is not likely to be a common problem situation; not many people understand the difference between RGB/grey and bitonal images, and modern scanners are set to scan to JPG by default. Most of the images people will want to upload will need to be greyscale or color anyway. But the committee should be aware of the differences--150 kb of bitonal is a *lot* more information than 150 kb of color/greyscale.
And someone should be available to resize/resample images if necessary, rather than just pulling them if they're too big. (I recommend the program Irfanview; it's free, open source & cross-platform. And it runs portably.) That part probably shouldn't be official policy, which likely needs to be "images that are too big get deleted," but it'd be nice if someone could fix them instead of deleting.
Another problem with the potential 150x150 pixel limit: it works for fanzines; it's awful for other types of art. I'm scanning a lot of filktape covers; I can pack a lot more of the original into 150 pixels than a fanzine cover can. (Hmm. Which reminds me. Should upload lots of the Fanlib protest icons at some point.) Any specific measurement limitations need to take into account the size of the original.
no subject
We have our own ideas about what size a thumbnail image is, but we wanted your input about how you'd define "high res" and "low res" images for Fanlore.
IMO (not so humble, based on 10 yrs experience in digital imaging industries), high-res is 300dpi *at original size*; low-res is about 150 dpi and under. 72 or 90 dpi, good for screen viewing, are definitely low res; a 150 dpi letter-sized page can be perfectly readable if printed out as half-letter (and is readable at 150, just somewhat pixelated.)
The problem with DPI and filesize as standards:
DPI has to be connected to original image size (measurements, not filesize), or it's irrelevant. Most people who upload images may be working with default scanner or photo settings and that'll happen on its own; digital image techies (like, ahem, me) will be tinkering with every aspect of the numbers.
A letter-sized page is 2550x3300 pixels at 300dpi. Change it to 72 dpi without resampling, and it's ~34"x46"--at the same filesize. This happens to a lot of people accidentally when they're changing settings in images; how to set for resampling instead of just changing the DPI depends on what program they're using.
Filesize limits are a problem because color is *much* bigger than B&W; a letter-sized page at 200 dpi, bitonal instead of greyscale, in PNG, is less than 50kb. And that's high enough res to read comfortably on the screen, print out without too much hassle, and even OCR. (With errors. Good OCR starts at 300 dpi; great OCR takes 400 dpi.) By dropping to 125 dpi (screen readable, a bit pixelated), an 8-page story can fit in a 200kb PDF.
This is not likely to be a common problem situation; not many people understand the difference between RGB/grey and bitonal images, and modern scanners are set to scan to JPG by default. Most of the images people will want to upload will need to be greyscale or color anyway. But the committee should be aware of the differences--150 kb of bitonal is a *lot* more information than 150 kb of color/greyscale.
And someone should be available to resize/resample images if necessary, rather than just pulling them if they're too big. (I recommend the program Irfanview; it's free, open source & cross-platform. And it runs portably.) That part probably shouldn't be official policy, which likely needs to be "images that are too big get deleted," but it'd be nice if someone could fix them instead of deleting.
Another problem with the potential 150x150 pixel limit: it works for fanzines; it's awful for other types of art. I'm scanning a lot of filktape covers; I can pack a lot more of the original into 150 pixels than a fanzine cover can. (Hmm. Which reminds me. Should upload lots of the Fanlib protest icons at some point.) Any specific measurement limitations need to take into account the size of the original.