Matt, you are probably right, but 500 was what other people here (e.g. Publications staff) were comfortable with. A postcard-sized inkjet print we made from a 600 pixel image was surprisingly good, good enough to scare people. I hope someday we can move beyond this stalemate and provide more useful images to the public, with or without tools such as Zoomify.
Will -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Morgan, Matt Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 10:48 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] image sizes I'm aware of the discussion, but what's the limit before you hit "commercially viable"? Surely more than 500px. On 5/5/09 10:39 AM, "Real, Will" <RealW at CarnegieMuseums.Org> wrote: Hi Matt, The reason is simple: the museum does not want people to be able to use the large images to produce commercially viable prints. There was a thread on this list awhile back about that issue, and it seems our museum is not alone in taking this approach. We seem to think that there is some money to be made off the images and if anyone is going to make it, it should be us. With Zoomify or jpeg2000 we can offer up the full size image without loading it all at once. If someone really wants to they will still be able to download all of the high-res tiles and reassemble them, but it would be a lot more difficult. Another reason is that some images are published on the web with permission from the copyright owners. The permission form specifies the online image size. We'd have to maintain at least two different maximum file sizes online depending on copyright. Not impossible of course, just kind of a pain! Will -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Morgan, Matt Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 9:57 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] image sizes Will, why wait for zoom before providing the large images? I think there are a lot of good arguments for very big images online now: 1) modern browsers handle resizing well 2) scrolling (when an image is too big for the window) is at least as easy for users as zooming, and shows them as much of the picture as will fit in the window (rather than arbitrarily limiting to a zoom pane) 3) connections are getting faster 4) and anyway, images are our "franchise" so if we're going to test users' bandwidth limits, this is the place to do it. Thanks, Matt On 5/5/09 8:50 AM, "Real, Will" <RealW at CarnegieMuseums.Org> wrote: We typically use 2400 px images in our internal database. The database creates a series of derivatives upon import and the user can then choose which version they want to open, save, or print. The derivatives are about 900 px, and a thumbnail. The tiff masters are stored outside of the database and range from about 3000 px to 8000 px. When the images are processed over to the web side, three sizes are created: 500 px, 240 px, and 80 px. In the future we hope to use zoomable formats on the web (e.g. Zoomify, jpeg2000) and if so would probably publish the full 2400 px version from the collections database. Will Real Carnegie Museum of Art ________________________________ From: mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu on behalf of Images Sent: Fri 5/1/2009 14:57 To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] image sizes I'm wondering what size(s) of images people are using in their internal databases? 1024 pixels on the long side plus a thumbnail view? What size do you use for online purposes? Many thanks! Danielle _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu <http://www.mcn.edu/><http://www.mcn.edu/><http://www.mcn.edu/><http://w ww.mcn.edu/> ) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/