To SysAdmin - Can configure this forum with display picture in reduced (predefined) size?

[Super-Hornet]

To SysAdmin

I just notice that, when we post picture in new thread, the picture is shown as original size (or full size). Because of that, viewing/navigating the thread will be quite troublesome.

I know that some forum software has the option to set in such a way that, on default, the picture is displayed in a predefined size. To view the full size, you have to click on it. Take a look on RCGroups for example.

So, is it possible to implement it in this forum as well?

[DH_Admin]

I think that can be done. But, there are other people who may prefer to see bigger pictures. Let's just see comments from other users before we decide what is the best dimension to set. Thanks for the feedback.

[FyreSG]

Good suggestion!

I fully agree with the suggestion!

In all the popular forums I frequent, the large pictures are automatically shrinked to a suitable size by default. To view them in full resolution, simply click on the picture. There will be a black bar on top of the picture stating it is shrinked because it is too big. Upon clicking, the expansion to full resolution is instantaneous and automagical - there is no reloading of the page. I believe these popular forums do that for a reason.

In addition to pictures, I believe video embeds are also like this.

[Adrianli]

I think that can be done. But, there are other people who may prefer to see bigger pictures. Let's just see comments from other users before we decide what is the best dimension to set. Thanks for the feedback.

Yeah, I prefer pics to be in thumbnail size and when wana view full resolution, one have to click the photo.

I realised when I surf the forum on my Nokia phone, E6 n N8, the pics are reduced to thumbnail size and easier to load. On PC, the photos appear larger than my pc screen, 21" running at Full HD already.

[DH_Admin]

Some information about images.

1. There are three ways to place images in a post. These are "Insert Image", "Attachments" and "External Image".

2. "Insert Image". You can inert an image by clicking the "Inert Image" button in the post editor. This method allows you to insert an image anywhere within the post, i.e. you can insert an image in the middle of texts. The image will be uploaded from your PC or an URL to the forum server.

3. "Attachments". You can add an image to a post by clicking the "Attachments" button in the post editor. All the images attached using this method will be placed with a window at the bottom of a post. You cannot use this method to place images in the middle of texts. The image will be uploaded from your PC or an URL to the forum server.

4. "External Images". You use the [IMG] tag (or HTML codes) to place an image from an external source to anywhere in a post. This image is resided in an external server which provides image storage services. The images will not be physically uploaded to the forum server. When you browse the post, the images will be downloaded from the external server to your PC directly. The forum server does not keep a copy of the image, i.e. the forum software has no control over the size of the image. The good thing is it save disk space in the forum server, but if the external image is deleted by its owner, the image will not be displayed when someone browse the post (you will see a blank white box with a little red corss).

5. The forum software has the control over the images using "Insert Image" and "Attachments". We can clip the images to a certain size if it exceeds a certain predefined max dimension. As of now, we do not implement this as we want to preserve the original image resolutions and quality.

6. For the images using "External Image", the forum software has no control. We count on the users to manage their images. In a way, we give users the free play to arrange and size the images the way they want it to be.

7. When the images is uploaded to the forum server using the "Insert Image" and "Attachments" methods, a thumbnail will be generated (max dimension is 200x200 pixels) and stored in the forum server. For Unregistered/Not Logged In users, when they browse a post with images, only the thumbnails of images will be displayed on their browser. They will not be able to download the full size images. As for the Registered users, the images will be displayed in full size in their browser (this is the current settings). We can change the settings such that only the thumbnails will be displayed, so that the full size images will be displayed when user click the thumbnails. By doing so (as suggested by user in this thread), there are two issues. One, you can only view one image at a time. Two, the images will not be shown in full size, just slightly larger than the thumbnail (that is how the forum software was written). You can see similar sites such as Helifreak to understand what I mean. Normally a forum shows thumbnails to users is because they want to save network bandwidth and server CPU resources.

8. I know, as mentioned by the few posts in this thread, there are posts that have too many large images, this results in difficulty in browsing those posts. But, if we set the forum to show thumbnails or clipped images, we lose the opportunity to view those very good and high quality images; and it will also make browsing of beautiful images very difficult. Ideally, we should have a button on the forum to allow users to switch between displaying full size and thumbnail size images. Unfortunately, the current forum software does not have such feature. I will see if I can find a way to add this feature.

9. As for video size (as mentioned by one user here), if users use the [video] tag, the size will be okay. Because we turn on the HTML codes feature, it gives users the power to define the video size. But, if we turn the feature off, users will lose many interesting things that can be done using HTML codes. Everything has its pros and cons.

10. I think the browsing of a thread with many images can be made even more difficult when another user quote the entire images in a reply post. So, please don't quote images.

11. And, please, if your image does not need to be high resolution, resize it to an appropriate size (dimension) and quality level before you upload it to a post. This will help a lot.

12. You win some when you lose some.

[Adrianli]

Thks for the explaination. So ultimately its the TS who decide how he wants others to view his thread.

[FyreSG]

6. For the images using "External Image", the forum software has no control. We count on the users to manage their images. In a way, we give users the free play to arrange and size the images the way they want it to be.

I guess that basically concludes the request. This forum does not have this feature (yet).

Here's how RCgroups do it:



Here's how HWZ do it:



And to elaborate on "free play" - true "free play" is when the user uploads the largest, highest resolution photo, and rest "decides" how big they want to see, by first showing the "resized to fit" version. If someone has a full HD monitor, he can click the image to see it in full glory; else the rest will enjoy at the default size that automagically fits into the browser window. This, is free play. But what we see now is users uploading huge images that can't even fit into my 1920x1080 monitor. To properly view these pictures, I could either save them and open with my image viewer, or zoom out with the browser.

To give some perspective - iPhone 5 shoots photos at 3264x2448, but most high-end monitors are "just" full HD, which is 1920 x1080. If the user does not manually resize but directly upload from his iPhone, the photo will never fit in a typical monitor screen. That is why automatic resize feature is so useful.

As much as I yearn and write so much about the automatic resize feature, it is not supported. Sigh!

[DH_Admin]

@FyreSG.
Take the RCgroups that you mentioned. I took a look. What they did was they clip all the images to 1024x1024 if any dimension is larger than 1024, and they generate a thumbnail of around 800x800. So, when you view a post, it shows you the 800x800 thumbnail, and when you click the thumbnail, it shows you the full size 1024x1024 picture. Further, you need to click each thumbnail to see the full size of all pictures which I find it hard to accept. The forum software we are having now, can do exactly what RCgroups is doing but I don't think this is not a good idea. I do not want to clip images, and I do not want to click every image when I browse images.

As I said in the previous post, I will look for other solution; a one button solution. I'm just not going to clip images.

[DH_Admin]

As much as I yearn and write so much about the automatic resize feature, it is not supported. Sigh!

We found a temporary solution to solve your browsing "headache" with large images. We created a new user group.When you are in this group, only thumbnail images will be shown as you browse a post with images (except for external linked images). The setback is you can't see the full size images.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

[DH_Admin]

Thks for the explaination. So ultimately its the TS who decide how he wants others to view his thread.

Adian, thanks. Users should show click the "Preview Post" button to see how is their post layout with the images before they submit the post.

[DH_Admin]

I just found a mod that will limit the display of images to a predefined max size. This has been installed and the max. dimension (width and height) is limited to 1000 pixels. This does not resize or change the resolution of the original image files (i.e. the original picture quality and resolution are preserved), it merely reduces the picture size at the browser. And it only applies to images using the "Insert Image" and "External Image" methods. It does not alter the display dimension of images using "Attachments" directly; however these images appear to be managed by the browser. From what I know, most browsers will resize the "Attachments" images to fit the screen.

I would like to urge users not to use the "Attachments" method to place images/pictures in the posts. Users should use the "Insert Image" method, the IMG bb tag or use HTML codes (for advanced users).


PS: Enough for today on this issue. I need to resume my KDS 550 build. LOL.

[Super-Hornet]

Thanks for the request update/changes. But I just updated my post in other section and the "uploaded" picture is still showing as full size (with a smaller size box showing behind). That mean, it does not work leh.

[FyreSG]

Let's get the lossless resize feature working!

First and foremost, thank you for all your hard work in trying to get the feature working! Your devotion to the site is evident in providing us with a vast "arsenal" of emoticons and implementing snowflakes Javascript effect (hint: X'mas is over; time to save some CPU cycles!)

Just sharing further thoughts on the issue. I suppose RCgroups and Hardwarezone, two extremely successful forums with proven track records, enabled the lossless automatic resize feature because they understood the trade-off between high image fidelity and the fundamental importance of the site, i.e. high usability. Perhaps other sites like Clubsnap, preserving full resolution may be useful. But I don't suppose photos of "WTS xyz" at full clarity is as appreciated. Maybe you can disable automatic resizing at The Picture House? The great shots posted in that forum may deserve all the digital real estate the user can offer. But then again, the folks over there are savvy users - they seem to have post-processed and reduced the images to a palatable size. On the other hard, at the Market Place, less savvy users simply snap and upload 8-megapixel photos with their phones, in full grainy gory details.

Good luck in getting the lossless resize feature working, and also to your 550 heli!

[DH_Admin]

Thanks for the request update/changes. But I just updated my post in other section and the "uploaded" picture is still showing as full size (with a smaller size box showing behind). That mean, it does not work leh.

SH, I think you are referring to your thread in "Scale Helicopters". You used the "Attachments" method. You should use the "Insert Image" method to place images. This is by clicking the following button in the editor:


I took the liberty of removing the attachments in your last post (post #6, hope you don't mind), and placed the same images using "Insert Image". Please take a look to see if images are okay when browsing.This images are "resized" to 1000 pixels (width) when browsing. The images stored in the forum server still maintain its original dimension. So, someone can just right click on the image and use "save picture as....." option to download and save the picture with the original dimension.

For example, you insert an image that is 1500x900. On the screen (when browsing), the picture will be displayed as 1000x600. But the actual image stored in the forum server still maintain at 1500x900. And a user can download the image using "save picture as ..." option to get the image file at 1500x900. So, in a way, the picture is resized to 1000x600 at display on browser without resizing the actual stored image.

[DH_Admin]

Hi,

I would like to close this thread. The following is a summary.

For more details of posting of images, please read here.

1. We have set the display limit of image width to 1000 pixel. Users can still post images of more than 1000 pixels wide, but when display, it will be resized to 1000 wide. The original dimension of an image stored will still be preserved. If users want to view images larger than 1000, they have to download it to PC to view it.

2. We have added a new BB tage, "RESIZE" to allow user to resize the image to a desired width before the image is stored in the forum server.

3. Users can now read this post to have a full understanding of image posting and handling.

4. Unless the image is a high quality photo (or other good reasons), we would like to request users to post image with width between 500 to 800 pixels.


Zenm