Blurry images

[+haggaeus]

I am not sure if it has been like this all the time, but the small photos at the WM page are sometimes really blurry - see for example my WMEDX1:

 

 

The left is the image on the WM page, the right is how it looks when scaled to the same size in Gimp.

Is there a workaround how to upload the images, or does everybody get such low quality pictures? When clicking on the image and displaying it in full size, the quality is ok.

[+Max and 99]

I am not sure if it has been like this all the time, but the small photos at the WM page are sometimes really blurry - see for example my WMEDX1:

 

 

The left is the image on the WM page, the right is how it looks when scaled to the same size in Gimp.

Is there a workaround how to upload the images, or does everybody get such low quality pictures? When clicking on the image and displaying it in full size, the quality is ok.

 

My vision is so bad I doubt I would have even noticed the bluriness if you hadn't told me. But now that I look closer, I see what you mean.

[+lumbricus]

Some of my waymarks have the same problem.

I don't know why.

Cheers lumbricus

[+haggaeus]

I have also noticed this already. Just now I've watched a few of my waymarks and found the following: The problem appears only with images which are upright. For images in landscape mode, there are no problems with sharpness. Maybe this helps more ...

 

Yes you are right, I examined the HTML and I see the source of the problem:

 

- the images to be displayed on WM page are scaled down from full size. I didn't found the exact rule but it looks like the portrait-oriented images get typically scaled to 266px high and 160-190px wide.

- then the style forces the image to be displayed 250px wide. A smaller resolution image is being scaled up by the browser and that's why it gets blurry.

 

To the developers: can it be fixed? Either by deleting the width: attribute of wm_photo class in CSS (you would get slightly smaller but sharp photo), or by scaling the preview images to 250px width?

[+dreamhummie]

Even the stats banner on the profiel page are blurry.

Alsoo the Geocache banner i placed in mine.

[+Rikitan]

....

- the images to be displayed on WM page are scaled down from full size. I didn't found the exact rule but it looks like the portrait-oriented images get typically scaled to 266px high and 160-190px wide.

- then the style forces the image to be displayed 250px wide. A smaller resolution image is being scaled up by the browser and that's why it gets blurry.

....

 

 

BINGO!

Guys, I found out quite good workaround. Long story short: 258px is the magic number.

If you would like to have sharpest possible "profile picture" of your waymark, I recommend you to resize it (and sharpen it properly in your picture-editing software) to be exactly 258 pixels wide (height is irrelevant).

 

.. okay, and now that long story:

 

I always prefered to use portrait oriented pictures as "profile images" of my waymarks. They look better (as thumbnails) in lists of waymarks, as well as in their listings. Portrait picture just matches better the shape of whole listing page than landscape picture.

But ... problem! - portrait picture looks always very very blurry, even if uploaded 100% sharp

Exactly as described and shown by Haggaeus above. Or you can see on this example of waymark listing.

And - as commented by Tante Hossi above - in case there is "profile picture" of waymark landscape oriented, picture looks (relativelly) sharp. That's why I've almost gave up up and started to use landscape images instead

 

But before giving up I looked into the forums and found this topic .. and then followed Haggaeus's investigation

So ...

 

1. If we upload landscape oriented picture, e.g. 800x600px:

- at first it is resized by website to exactly 400px wide image (400x300px in our case)

- but it is displayed in listing with different size - displayed size is always 258px wide (258x194px in our case)

- since displayed size is always smaller than "natural" one, "damage" to sharpness of picture is not that visible

 

2. If we upload portrait oriented picture (this is what I prefer) instead, e.g. 600x800px:

- at first it is resized by website to exactly 266px high image (200x266px in our case)

- but it is displayed in listing with different size - always 258px wide, so size is 258x343px in our example

- this means, that displayed size is always bigger than "natural" one and this fact damages the picture sharpness a lot

 

I would illustrate it on this example of blured "profile picture" in waymark listing:

 

 

3. Workaround. So I tried to:

- manually resize (with sharpening) "profile picture" in my computer to width 258px - before upload

- then I uploaded the picture with dimensions 258x387px (in order to prevent subsequent autoresize job by website)

- the result is not 100% perfect, but is more than good

- picture has not been resized by website

- picture is displayed with dimensions 258x383px in waymark listing, that does not look bad ...

- so dimensions are sligthly different (the height), that is something what I don't quite understand but I can live with that

- examples of "fixed" listings with 258px wide images are here and here

 

Illustration:

 

 

Conclusion:

 

- this is obvious bug, website shouldn't handle images the way it does

- it is clear that we cannot expect it will ever be fixed programatically, since there are many and much more important problems with this web

- so my suggested workaround is to prepare your main picture of WM to 258 pixels width, then it will be displayed best by website

- this suggestion applies for both portrait and landscape oriented picture

- of course, other pictures in waymark gallery should be with standard, sufficient size and resolution (eg. 900x600px)

 

In case you have any other, additional observation, please let us know

[+Rikitan]

To show it on comparable examples, I used same picture as "profile picture" of 2 my waymarks:

 

• one in lookout tower category - this one is blurry (uploaded with size 948x1200px)
  
• second in official local attractions category - this one is sharp (uploaded with size 258x325px)
  

 

This is evident enough, but I bet there are even worse examples of blurry pictures. Upload with 258px width can make big difference.

[+MountainWoods]

Wow. That's some cool investigation. I just may do that.

 

On the other hand, if Groundspeak ever fixes this (maybe in about 20 years?), then the photos that weren't shrunk to 258 pixels wide would look clearer. Based on probabilities, though, I'd give the resizing to 258 pixels wide as more likely to get results...

 

Thanks!

[+Rikitan]

On the other hand, if Groundspeak ever fixes this (maybe in about 20 years?), then the photos that weren't shrunk to 258 pixels wide would look clearer.

Yes, you are right and this very good and valid point. It can happen in future, Groundspeak can redesign waymark listings with different default view (bigger WM "profile" picture) and images 258px wide will look poor Of course it would be best if there is someone who can correct it programatically, the fix is really trivial ...

 

But with current setup is sharpest possible result achieved with uploaded size 258 x 266 pixels. In such case, site does not resize picture and displays it in original resolution. Another two examples are this stairway and lighthouse.

 

When thinking more about future (and possibility of listings redesign by Groundspeak), I would say that best option is to use picture with 258/266 multiplied by some ratio (like 4 - sizes 1032 x 1064 pixels). Then is image resized by website (some loss of sharpness, not a best job by site) to 258 x 266px and - at least this is fine - displayed as it is.

 

[+Bohemian1966]

Doh... I should have read this thread backwards !

[+The A-Team]

Did you recognize? The problem with the blurry images has been fixed in the last days/weeks!!

It did not took 20 years - only 2 or 3

 

All pictures upright and landscape look fine now.

 

Thanks for fixing this old bug!!

It isn't fixed for the Waymarks I've been looking at. To confirm, I just inspected the size of images on one listing, and the image is still being displayed at a different size than the actual resized image (and also at a different aspect ratio). All of the portrait images I looked at are blurry.