[WEB4LIB] Generating thumbnail graphics files for links

[Thomas Dowling]

I don't want to disparage Paintshop Pro--I know it by reputation to be a
very solid program.  But I wonder if this is one case where you get what
you pay for.  I have never seen a program that could resize bitmapped
images as well as Adobe Photoshop 5.0.  When I grab one of Bill's large
JPEGs and resize it to 250px high, Photoshop keeps it clean and non-jaggy.
By contrast, my copy of Picture Publisher 7.0 makes a jaggier thumbnail,
and I would say the PaintShop thumbnails on the site are a little more
jaggy.

Whatever the package, though, you can improve the quality of the thumbnail
by cropping out some or all of the white background and/or despeckling the
background before resizing.

Photoshop is probably too pricey for just one thumbnail job, but would be
a good long-term investment if you're going to do substantial graphics
work.  Otherwise, it might well be available in a computer center on
campus.


Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu


> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib at webjunction.org
> [mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Wilfred Drew
> Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 1998 4:56 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: [WEB4LIB] Generating thumbnail graphics files for links
>
>
> I am trying to locate a good program for generating thumbnail
> images to be
> used as links to larger images.  I just tried using GIFs I created using
> Paintshop Pro by reducing the height and width of the original file.  It
> doesn't work very well for that as the images are mostly black
> and white and
> reducing the size makes the image unrecognizable.  Any suggestions?  The
> program needs to run on Windows 95 and the thumbnails need to
> be in GIF or
> JPG format.
>
> The page I will be using these in is at:
> http://www.morrisville.edu/pages/library/coye/misc/
>
> It is part of a larger project at:
>
> http://www.morrisville.edu/pages/library/coye/