Use JPGs instead of PNGs in guides

allenskd

allenskd

Active Member
Hey guys, lately I've been browsing through guides in the site and each article has a number of heavy imagery from 1.8mb to 2.7mb.

2015-01-02-11%3A40%3A26-screenshot.png


Normally, this isn't a problem to those with really fast internet connections. I'm still on 4mbps(400kb/s) myself and have found it really tedious. Plus those with data caps would thank you for lowering the size of each images posted.

For example, a 2.6mb png image can be reduced to 204kb just using jpg format. I honestly don't think we need "HQ images" as people just want to follow the guides themselves. Plus, you'll be also saving bandwidth server side, and most importantly fast loading pages!

Just a suggestion that I hope is taken into consideration!
 
When you're posting your guide, is there no option to choose the format? I agree that the smaller, the better, since the actual quality of the shots isn't particularly important.

If the option exists, we could advise all the guide posters to use a more compressed format, and put it in the guide FAQ. If it doesn't, I'll look into how to make it available,

Brian? What do you think?
 
The screenshots need to be originally saved as JPGs, or converted before uploading.

Most graphics software will also let you set the amount of compression for a JPG. Most screenshots can be compressed quite a bit without looking bad.
 
Its because I'm using 1680x1050 PNG Screenshots.
All the rest of the screens are normally under 100KB

How about I use JPG for the screenshots?

The reason I stick with PNG is because my PrintScreen functionality automatically does PNG.
So it saves time to leave them as PNG. converting all of my screens will take more time.

is there a way to change the default format when pretting PrintScreen in Debian/Ubuntu/Mint?

Another thing I notices about the guides, is that all the images have to be loaded every time you reply. It takes a while because of all the large screenshots.

Our old forum used to only load pictures as they appeared in the screen. This saved loading times.
 
Hey booman,

I have an idea so you don't have to alter your default settings if you prefer them that way.

Bind the command scrot to create a jpg with, uh, let's say: <SUPER+S> (where as SUPER is the windows key in your keyboard)

So it would be this command

Code: 
scrot ~/screenshots/%Y-%m-%d-%T-screenshot.jpg

Now, you could also do it like me when I do guides and it eliminate one step in the guide:

Code: 
scrot ~/screenshots/%Y-%m-%d-%T-screenshot.jpg -e 'gimp $f'

This will tell scrot to take the screenshot and open it up in GIMP. This is what I currently use in my KDE setup. It should be fairly easy to set the keybindings!
 
I don't need to open it in Gimp at first. I take all of the screenshots in order while installing. Then Later I open them all in GIMP and crop. I've gotten my guides down to a step-by-step method that makes it pretty quick.
I don't mind using scrot, but I need it to save the screenshots in a folder like Pictures.
 
I'm going to keep using PNG for the small screenshots. Its just quicker and my system is already in place.
I just converted my screenshots from 3MB PNG to 200KB JPG
This makes a huge difference in size and the image is still pretty high quality.
I'll do this from now on. I prefer PNG because its higher quality (lossless compression) but its no big deal.
No one has mentioned problems until now.
Also, uploading my guides will be even quicker.
 
I think it's a good idea not just for us, but for visitors who might have weak connections, so it's a win all around. My connections are quite fast, so I probably wouldn't think of it myself, but for others it could mean a lot.

Thanks to Allen for thinking of it.
 
Yes, thanks Allen!
My internet is the lowest tier from Cox Cable. its pretty good for movies, games and music, but I have noticed that upload speeds aren't so great.
I really wish there was a setting for images on our forum. Something that won't load every image on the page all at once.
 
No CP options exist to change the behavior we're after. I'm talking to Gizmo about it, but it doesn't seem like there's a viable alternative. At this point, the best we can do to alleviate the load speed is to make sure future images are in the more compressed jpg format. That way, the new stuff will load faster, at least. Clearly, the difference between a 3mb png and a 200kb jpeg is a significant one.

I'll keep looking at it, and I'll let you know what I find. Maybe there's a way to write a script to convert the images we already have?
 
Strange, Joomla has had that feature for years. AOA forums had it on the frontpage and all the article.
It would only load the images that appear in the screen. Nice feature. Oh well
 
Brian, is the behavior the same if the guide has only jpg files in it? [or: Can you test it for me when you have time? IDK if we have an all-jpg guide as yet]
 
I'm not sure, all of our guides include png, so I'll have to do a test
 
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