Style Discussion: Padding for tall images

[tripredacus]

Here is a new discussion that may eventually lead to a poll.

Should we consider allowing image padding on tall images?

Currently the style guide has this to say about images:

Images should be as high-res as possible, and without extra blank space on the sides

Which means that the subjects of images should be cropped to the subject's edges. Due to the way that:
1. Images look on item entries
2. How the site sizes images that are too tall

We end up having some entries that look bad on the entry page, in a category list and in the dynamic signature.
Should we consider allowing white-space for images in certain situations?

Tall Images
Tall Images are where the problem is. Because the site resizes to width, it can make really tall images. Also, if you end up posting an image with less than 200 px width, the site will enlarge the image to match the 200 px width, potentially making an image taller than originally, and not only that will make it blurry.

The Sega Stereo Audio Video Cable is a classic example of an entry with too tall images. However, these images meet the requirements laid out in the style guide, perhaps with the exception of the high resolution.

In comparison, I ran across this entry when cleaning up the Wii Accessory category, and thought that if I had replaced the front image with one that meet the requirements of the style guide, it would not be as good. So I left it as is so it could be used as an example in this thread.
PowerA Ultra Sensor Bar (white)

Compare that to the image for the Wii U sensor bar: PowerA Ultra Sensor Bar (Black).

We could use a minimum height to calculate padding, perhaps a ratio can be decided.

Post what you think.

[dhaabi]

Personally, I think that entry images should be as uniform as possible to one another in size. Padding built in to accommodate for images less than 200px wide sounds like a move in the right direction. Now, the too-tall images currently are quite off-putting.

If what you've proposed is agreed and enacted upon, would images that are more wide than tall, such as this other Wii accessory, be given padding as well? I'm curious as to what your envisioned goal for the community to reach is. For all item entry images to have a uniform square ratio (200x200, etc.)?

[aliensstudios]

Personally, I'd say no unless the background is transparent and not white or black but I don't think transparent .png or .gif files are supported since the site converts them to .jpegs.

[tripredacus]

Originally started this idea as tall, then when writing the post I included wide, but then removed it. Because Wide images do not have the problem of deformation that the tall images have. A solution for wide images would be to allow an enlarge feature, but that is not something that can be handled in the style guide.

We don't get to know what color the site would change the alpha layer to on an jpg conversion from GIF or PNG. For a client, it depends on the settings of the editor. Since we can only use JPGs, a background color would have to be specified.

[pzeke]

Taking the image from the first link as an example, adding a border of 130px on both sides I think could solve the issue.



That's 460x680px, which, if my guesstimate is correct, will turn into 200x300px once the website resizes the width.

As for the background, I'm with aliensstudios, but if it can't be done, then white seems like a good compromise.

[pzeke]

Adding to my last post, if the height of the image is of 1000px, then the padding area could be of 670px, maybe even 700px depending on the image. I'm using myself here as the example given 1000px is usually the size I tend to resize most images I upload in order to conform to the 2MB size limit.

Is there any chance to make the website itself handle this? Someone uploads a tall image and the website recognizes it and adds the padding itself...

[tripredacus]

Is there any chance to make the website itself handle this? Someone uploads a tall image and the website recognizes it and adds the padding itself...

Actually, this may be better off being a feature request, or handled by some redesign of the image platform on the site, rather than having to potentially have to instruct users on how to do this with whatever image editor they are using. I'm sure if we all listed the programs we used from just the people who posted in this thread, there would be at least 3 different answers.

[pzeke]

It's not that difficult, really. Let's say we settle for a maximum height of 1000px for the sake of staying within the 2MB size limit, all that the user has to do is add the padding dependent on the width of the image. If the image is 250px wide, then the padding should be of 210px on both sides based on the 670px example I gave above. It's a simple edit that any image editing program can do.

With that said, I still think this is something the website should do on its own, so it could be a feature in the future.