[Feature launched!] Donation drive: signature refactoring (no more pixelation! pngs!)

[sothis]

For your consideration, we're looking at finally redoing all of the signature code - something you've requested for a long time! :D

What would be included in this update:

-Code redone from scratch in imagemagick, rather than GD (gives us WAY more options)

-functionality for GOOD image thumbnails - no more html resize for things like the anime main images, the character images in the browse table, etc

-Pixelation won't be an issue anymore

-Scalability will get built in right away for things like text positioning and colors (and will be easier to add other things next like glow/etc). Very soon after this, I'll want to get things going for new image sizes and greater user customization.

Cost will be an estimate of $350 to rebuild all of this.

Please donate now! so we can get this going :)

Remember that you can use donations towards big time TACO points, and cash in for prizes such as forcing therik to review something (*COUGH A LOLI SERIES *COUGH*)

TOTAL NEEDED - $350 $312.50 $292.50 DONE

Donators:

M.J. - $15
theholyduck - $17.50
gleipnir: $5
animeparty: $20
sothis: remainder

[Drahken]

Switching from jpg to png isn't needed to get good quality, and will greatly increase filesize (and thus bandwidth) of such images. All that is needed is to disable chroma subsampling in the jpgs. This will give images that can be nearly as high quality as pngs, but at a fraction of the size.

For example:
JPG with maximum subsampling (28k)


PNG (111k)


JPG with subsampling disabled (36k)



The first jpg uses the same subsampling settings as what a-p currently uses, and clearly looks like crap (this is what everyone expects from a jpg, but it is not inherant to the format).
The second jpg uses the same compression ratio as the first, the only difference is the fact that subsampling isdisabled. As you can see, it looks nearly the same as the png (and infinitely better than the first jpg), but with only 1/3 the filesize. Now 80k isn't much in today's broadband world, but when you multiply that by thousands of users, it makes a big difference in a-p's bandwidth usage.



edit: in regards to screenshots:
JPG with maximum subsampling (16k)


JPG with subsampling disabled (21k)


PNG (88k)


In this sample, the non-subsampled jpg looks as good as the png, but is less than 1/4 the filesize. Multiply that by the 3,000 entries on a-p, then multiply that by at least 6 (and up to 16 or more) and you can see what an impact that would have on a-p's bandwidth usage.



Mind you, I'm not saying that this change to imagemagick isn't a good idea, quite the contrary. Imagemagick will grant the option of disabling the damned subsampling. What I am saying is that it's a much better idea (once imagemagick is installed) to use jpgs with low compression & subsampling disabled as opposed to pngs.

[therik]

Originally Posted by sothis

Remember that you can use donations towards big time TACO points, and cash in for prizes such as forcing therik to review something (*COUGH A LOLI SERIES *COUGH*)

For the sake of balance, I should point out that there are also other rewards on which TACO points can be spent.

[sothis]

as a heads up, looks like a few hours after i posted this kenaniah responded with the same information - we will be keeping jpgs with similar transparency options and such.

that is, if enough people donate! if anyone has been wanting the sigs to improve, please help!

[AnarchicQ]

Originally Posted by therik

For the sake of balance, I should point out that there are also other rewards on which TACO points can be spent.

But torture is so much fun.

[sothis]

just updated with the first 3 donations, thanks you three :) this update will make sigs better for everyone and pave the way for more sizes/customizations, every bit helps!

[sothis]

thanks to animeparty for a $20 donation! we're still a long ways to go (i'm surprised more people aren't jumping on this, since a lot of people complain about the sigs! XD)

just think, no more pixelated sigs! any color you want for your username without it looking crappy! thumbnails that don't look horrible throughout the entire site! a prerequisite to having more sizes and customization of the sigs! lots of good stuff ^_^

[sothis]

just realized that last month more ad $ came in than anticipated (thanks to our US users who visit the ads you see - they help us out the most). so i'm going to cover the remainder of this so it can get done. I figure people probably just want to save their donation power for something bigger/better. ^_^

[Lan]

Therik secretly paid everyone off.