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Am3 Community - FAQ & Support: [Sticky] Image Upload Guide

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      CommentAuthorjason (Admin)
    • CommentTimeSep 19th 2009 edited
     
    Occasionally we are asked about image quality and how to get the best possible image reproduction on Aminus3. This article is a best practices guide for image uploading as well as a way to troubleshoot when your images do not seem the same on your blog as they do on your desktop.

    1) Horizontal Image Size
    At this time, the maximum current size of images displayed on Aminus3 is 800 pixels wide
    If you use an Aminus3 border, it is better to use a larger image than 800 pixels because the way we add the border could reduce sharpness in your image.

    As a general practice, 1200 pixels is a good size for image upload on Aminus3 for horizontal images

    For those unsure how to resize their images, please see this article How do I resize my photos?

    2) Vertical Image Size
    Vertical images can also be 800 pixels wide, however, some people complain that this is too large to see the whole image on a standard monitor without having to scroll.

    Vertical images sized to 550 pixel width (and around 800-850 pixel height or less) are usually viewable in most common resolutions without scrolling.

    (see the link above if you are unsure how to resize your image)

    3) JPG Compression and DPI

    Generally, a JPG compression setting of 80% or above should be sufficient
    DPI (or PPI) is irrelevant to web output and can be ignored. For the sake of entering a value, 72 dpi is fine.

    4) Color Space

    Color space is one of the most important settings you will want to be aware of
    All images for the web should be saved in sRGB color space. This is true for Aminus3 and any other web site.

    One of the most common support issues related to image quality is My image on Aminus3 looks desaturated compared to my desktop or The colors are different on Aminus3 compared to my desktop. 99.9% of the time, this is because the image was not saved with the sRGB color space.

    This FAQ article explains this in more detail and is a good reference:
    Why do my images look different compared to Photoshop?

    5) Compression

    Images uploaded to Aminus3 have additional compression applied. This is an effort to cut down on disk space and file size. Note that one of the benefits of joining A+ membership is that your images will not be compressed on upload. If image quality is your top concern, you may consider upgrading to an A+ membership.

    That being said, we feel that the image quality for free members is quite acceptable in most cases. We do not inhibit the image quality for free members in any way to promote A+ memberships. The only difference is the additional compression, which for many images should be nearly unnoticeable.

    Other than that, image quality for free members should still be sharp and colors should still look the same as your monitor. If they do not, please refer to the setting suggestions above to ensure your images are prepared properly for upload.

    6) Metadata

    Some people choose to keep their metadata in their images for copyright purposes. For free members, we strip all metadata before saving the image. If you need to keep your metadata, consider upgrading to an A+ Membership in which case you can choose to preserve metadata for your images.


    7) When in doubt - Contact Support

    Often times we hear about people who have gone weeks or months questioning their image quality and don't contact us until they are fed up and frustrated. We would welcome you to Contact Support any time you feel your image is not reproducing as it should and we are happy to help you troubleshoot. We believe our image quality to be quite good and would like the opportunity to investigate and help you before you reach the breaking point :)

    When contacting us, it is helpful if you send us one of your original files you are having a problem with so that we can try to reproduce what you are seeing. You can always send files to support@aminus3.com.

    That should give you a general how-to for image uploading. If you would like to share your own thoughts or experience, please do so in this thread.
    • CommentAuthorshoti
    • CommentTimeOct 27th 2009
     
    Hi Jason.

    I followed your advice regarding uploading photos but I still see jpeg artifacts in my photos. I'm not really sure about this, but I think it all began when I started using a mac computer. can you help me on this?

    Thanks
    Shoti
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      CommentAuthorjason (Admin)
    • CommentTimeOct 30th 2009
     
    Hi Shoti

    In an effort to save storage and bandwidth costs, we apply compression to images uploaded by our free members. Typically the result is not noticeable, but there are certain types of images where it is more apparent.

    One of the value added features of our A+ Membership is that we do not compress images resulting in the best possible image quality. Please see our membership page under your Admin settings for more information.

    thanks,
    Jason

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