Toss Large Images; Keep Medium & Thumbs only?

[Bill Thebert]

Subject pretty well sums it up.

I have users who upload ENORMOUS images. PhotoPost properly resizes them for display to 640 x 480. But it keeps the full-sized image as well. My users end up exhausting their 2MB storage limit after only 5 pics or so.

Is there a way to TOSS the original, 1200x1600/400KB images, and keep ONLY the 640x480/75KB medium images (plus the thumbnails, of course)? I haven't yet found such a setting in the admin pages.

Better still would be to be able to select this behavior as an OPTION on a user-by-user basis.

[Michael P]

If I were you, I would set my max image size to 640 and turn off medium images, then set "resize images that exceed" to YES so that you only end up with 640x480 images.

[Bill Thebert]

Originally Posted by Michael P

If I were you, I would set my max image size to 640 and turn off medium images, then set "resize images that exceed" to YES so that you only end up with 640x480 images.

I get it.

I was under the mistaken impression that "MAX IMAGE SIZE" would result in over-large images being simply rejected (i.e., an error message).

If I make the config changes you suggest, I can see how this will do what I want going forward. Is there a way to apply these choices retroactively to images already in the database?

"Remake medium images" doesn't seem to apply if medium images are turned off, as you suggest. Neither does "remake thumbnails".

[Michael P]

I don't think we have a "resize max images" feature; but I could look into the possibility of one. I dont know offhand how hard it would be - mainly because in the past people didn't want us messing with the originals except at upload time.

[Bill Thebert]

I'd be interested in that. Even if it were a separate little script-let, and not baked into the PhotoPost product.

I guess I just didn't anticipate very well. I have numerous users that have already "hit the wall" in terms of their upload limits -- after only a handful of images.

Not so long ago, when a 1.3 megapixel digicam cost $500+, most users had the skill set to resize their images before uploading. Now it seems that everyone and their brother has a 5+ megapixel camera, and no idea how to resize the images.

As long as one is not concerned about maintaining the high-res images (e.g., for high-quality printing in larger sizes), the config options you described above make sense. They will maximize the number of screen-viewable images that may be uploaded by all users, while minimizing disk resources, bandwidth, etc.

Future versions of PhotoPost might include more complex limits (e.g., downsize the MAX image to 2 megapixels or 1200x1600, and STILL make a 640x480 "medium" image). This would preserve a reasonable on-screen display AND the ability to print up to 5x7 or so -- while conserving space on 4 & 5 megapixel file uploads. Food for thought?

[Bill Thebert]

Originally Posted by Michael P

If I were you, I would set my max image size to 640 and turn off medium images, then set "resize images that exceed" to YES so that you only end up with 640x480 images.

Attempting to do this. Running 4.86

I set both the max image size values (height and width) to 640.

I set "resize images that exceed" to YES

I set "keep medium and large images" to NO

Uploaded images are thumbnailed properly.

When I click on a thumbnail and display the page for a specific single image, the DATA shows a new image size of 640 x N. But the image displayed on the page is thumbnail sized (100 x N).

When I change the "upload option" values BACK to what they were (max size = 2000, keep medium & large = YES), the same image displays fine -- at the expected 640 x N size. (Image doesn't need to be re-uploaded. The previously-uploaded images now display properly.)

Am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug?

[Bill Thebert]

Originally Posted by Bill Thebert

Am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug?

anyone?

[Michael P]

> I set "keep medium and large images" to NO

Set this to YES and set medium size to 0 - this way you have the one large image (640x480) and no medium. Setting it to NO causes it to toss everything except the thumbnail.