A common problem for our clients is that they’d like to display images which have been optimized for web display (500px wide, jpg compression, nice and crisp) but want to offer the full-resolution images for download also. However not everyone wants to boot up Photoshop, Automator, or their photo editor of choice to create the thumbnails and web-sized images. Here’s a WordPress plugin incorporating James Heinrich’s phpThumb() thumbnailing script. It automates the process:
Simply upload a large (huge) version of the image, put them in normal <img src="" /> tags. WPIR parses them out and generates 400px wide versions (configurable) in a <div class="images"></div> at the top of the post. You can style this to float:right; or whatever.
It also generates a <div class="presskit"></div> at the bottom of the post with links to the high-res originals. These do a force-download instead of opening in the browser window.
Exempt images from resizing: <img class="custom" src="foo" />
Puts a nice, slight unsharp mask filter to crispify the images after that muddy bicubic resampling.
There are more details and specifics in the INSTALL file. The plugin does not create any new databases and all the resized images are cached in the plugin folder. Using ImageMagick as described in the INSTALL file is highly recommended.
I’d like to have a full WP interface to allow different widths to be configured, perhaps by what kind of page they’re in, what category, or even just a field in the WordPress sidebar to specify pixel width. But this is a good start… anyone want to pitch in?
Doug London referred me to this terrific Times article on Clearview, a new typeface approved by the Federal Highway Administration in 2004, and now being rolled out across the US. It replaces what was known as “Highway Gothic”, which was has been in use since the fifties, with a new design based on contemporary signage type. Notable differences: the lower-case “l” is easily distinguished from the “1” or “I”, the lower-case letter height is much higher, and the negative space in the letters is more pronounced. It shares a lot with Erik Spiekermann’s FF Meta which was designed for the German postal service in 1984. Doug spotted the new typeface near Crystal City, VA.
This fascinating software program created by Dr. Ariel Shamir analyzes images by gradient magnitude and removes or adds irregular lines. Watch as images are reduced and expanded – not by scaling or cropping but by algorithmically removing “empty” space. Rocks slide over one another, objects are eclipsed by other elements, and proportions of each element are generally preserved.
The use of gradient magnitude to “block” meaningful areas of an image is fascinating – our brains already edit out a huge amount of what we see and this technology may be performing a similar function. Also interesting is the emphasis on the technology’s use for displaying images at various sizes and aspect ratios – to me, the ability to “shrink” information out of an image simply by resizing the frame is fascinating on a deeper level than simply to aid page layout. (Note that the title of the linked article refers to the removed material as “the useless”) And the implications for the integrity of photos we see on a day-to-day basis give me pause as well.
My feelings on Facebook’s user interface evoke memories of interacting with that overly nice, very popular girl in high school. You’re never quite sure how you should actually feel, and quite often, you walk away completely confused. A case in point of this confusion is above— I suppose by having a checkbox that’s checked, one could argue that you’re forcing people to be aware that their information is being submitted to who-knows-where. However, I think the dissappointment in believing that you can uncheck the box, and then finding out it’s not an actual option, is far worse. First, it gives the user false expectations and destroys their mental model of what a check box can be used for. To add icing in the cake, everything in Facebook is comprised of these “applications” now, so the message gives this slightly Orwellian feeling that you must comply, or be shipped off to the leper colony of app-less facebook dwellers.
Finally, I enjoy how there’s no mention anywhere of how this information is used, or why they need it…
One of our most recent clients, GreenVolts has just launched their new site, which we spent the last month or so designing. In their own words:
GreenVolts, Inc., based in San Francisco, was founded in 2005 to deliver solar power at fossil fuel costs. Through low cost and high efficiency, GreenVolts can access large markets previously inaccessible to solar power. GreenVolts changes the economics of solar energy.
Freestyle Walking: No longer just a euphemism for your friend falling on their face! Check out this great new video for RJD2’s “Work it Out.” (click image above) While just plain cool, reading the blurb from the YouTube page is simply inspiring:
Bill Shannon who was born with a degenerative hip condition. His legs cannot carry his own weight and so he has lived a life on crutches. He has developed a new way of moving through life on his skateboard and the crutches.
At our current rate of consumption, the human population can similarly not “carry its own weight” and is leaving a massive ecological footprint. In the same way this young man has “developed new ways of moving through life,” I think we should jump on the problems at hand as opportunities to develop something just as creative and unique. Just look at the neat design of those crutches! They look a lot more like fun than a necessity. Solving climate change and a host of other green problems should leave us with the same fly-high kind of feeling. So let’s do this thing in style.
This narrated time-lapse animation from a recent article on obesity spread through social networks in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) does a beautiful job visualizing the issues. Considering that, more and more, folks like the World Health Organization (WHO) are framing the discussion of obesity as an epidemic, being able to watch it contagiously spread through this visual representation is quite powerful. While the colors and lay-out may not have been quite as graphically impactful as it could have been, (colors not quite bright enough, links too thin, etc.) it’s reassuring to observe people working on these important issues avoid a drier presentation of their findings in lue of these dynamic tools made available by new technologies. Hopefully we’ll see more of it as these tools become more accessible.
Link Washington Post article Link to animation Link to original NEJM article
Also, I love the use of contradictory branding above and below the enlightening tagline. Perhaps it’s meant to represent the metamorphsis of Hotmail (which was hard to use) into Windows Live Hotmail (something even harder to use).
Well, at least Microsoft is showing some true innovation here- having >50% of the words trademarked/branded in a sentence (“Windows Live” is one trademark).
Link to Hotmail.com (that’s right, this was so important, they put it on the front page.)
