Image resolution is low when saving from Safari

Question

Level 1

16 points

Image resolution is low when saving from Safari

When I save a picture from Safari, then view it from Photos, it appears to be much lower resolution than what I saved.
(No, I'm not saving the thumbnail by mistake! I can see the size at the top of the browser window - 669x1000 pixels)

Can you control the resolution?
Does anyone know why this happens and how to stop it?
Thanks.

Message was edited by: whoit

Posted on May 28, 2009 2:57 PM

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Answer 1

A A P L

Level 7

21,764 points

May 28, 2009 3:10 PM in response to whoit

If it's downloading a very-high res pic to the Touch, it will likely look crappy.
Too high, too low, and it's not going to work right.
You can test buy going to a site that has iPhone/iPod wallpapers.
The more exaggerated the size in either direction, the worse it looks, in my experience.
Can you choose sizes?
I know a lot of wallpaper sites let you choose.
Try this site:
http://www.iphone-wallpapers.us/

SB

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Answer 2

whoit Author

Level 1

16 points

May 28, 2009 3:42 PM in response to A A P L

That's odd since photos that I sync look fine at any resolution. (Even though iTunes does some weird optimization and makes redundant directories!)

It's not the display that's the problem, it seems like it's the quality of the image save from Safari - like it's downsampling the pic.

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Answer 3

whoit Author

Level 1

16 points

May 28, 2009 4:06 PM in response to A A P L

On the Touch.

When I view a picture in Safari, on the Touch, it shows as (for example) 300x900 pixels and looks great.

Then I save it from Safari to the Touch.

Then I look at the picture from the Photos section of the Touch, and the resolution is significantly lower. I don't know the new dimensions 'cause the Touch doesn't give you any metadata (size, name, date, etc, etc) about pictures.

I am not transferring the pictures to my pc.

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Answer 4

luvlabs

Level 4

3,620 points

May 28, 2009 4:19 PM in response to whoit

There are a lot of web images that are just unusable on the touch. There are a few reasons for this. The touch is a relatively high resolution display and the web images are small - in both pixel dimensions and dpi specs. It's not unusual for a web designer to downsample an image to make it as small as possible in file size so it loads quickly.

Think of it this way, your touch is roughly equivalent to 640 X 480 pixels monitor. In web browsers, that is a pretty big chunk of real estate and so images are often half that size or smaller. These images also have a tremendous amount of detail taken out by setting the dpi to 72. Blow that up to just about any size larger, and it is unacceptable. Download a few of those images and look at them in Photoshop and increase the size. They are going to look as bad as the touch does with the same image.

Bottom line - crappy picture in, crappy picture out.

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Answer 5

whoit Author

Level 1

16 points

May 29, 2009 6:21 AM in response to luvlabs

Thanks luvlabs, but I am exceptionally well versed in bitmaps and resolution.

The reason things look as good as they do on the Touch is due to the PPI (DPI) - 163 PPI - about double most monitors (My Dell is 80PPI). Since the Touch is 480x320, it can show as many pixels as a 960x640 display.

Nevertheless, none of this matters because when I view an image in the browser, and it's clear and sharp and the browser says that it's 669x1000 (as I wrote in my first post), then it's 669x1000. That's not a crappy picture, especially on the Touch, in fact, it's larger than the display.
So there's no reason at all that it should save from Safari and then view any different - except, as previously responded above, it's a bug.

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Answer 6

A A P L

Level 7

21,764 points

May 29, 2009 11:00 AM in response to whoit

So, did you come here to argue with people trying to help?
Not sure what to make of this - you know so much, but you're asking for help?
If it's a bug, file a report with Apple.
I'm sure they'd appreciate your knowledge.

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Answer 7

whoit Author

Level 1

16 points

May 29, 2009 11:19 AM in response to A A P L

I'm not here looking to argue, I am looking to get info.
And because I know a lot about images and resolution, doesn't mean that I know a lot about a device I just got my hands on a few days ago - why would you make that assumption?

Plus, I don't believe I was argumentative with your previous post(s), or with luvlabs for that matter.
I'm not sure why you feel the need to defend luvlabs comments.

And I did file a bug with Apple just as Anna suggested - thanks.
And I don't believe Anna had a problem with my comments in my other posts that she (assuming Anna is female) responded to either.

As well, I find it irritating when people reply without first reading the entire previous thread. It would save a lot of time for everyone if they did.

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Answer 8

pflite

Level 1

0 points

Jun 24, 2009 6:34 AM in response to whoit

I've checked out this post because I have same problem.

I've also updated to os 3.0 and part of the previosly blurred pictures are prefectly readable now, a few pictures are still blurred.

As whoit said, they are quality pictures, not just lo res pics.
They pics downloaded from safari mixed with my own pics taken with my camera and worked with photoshop.
Just to add some more infos, pictured that have become readable are 800x600 pixels format. One of the pics I can't see well is 760x505 pixels...another one is 760x535 and was blurred before os3 update...no it's fine.

I really can't understand what's going on.
Anyone can provide some further infos or help?

Thanks and best regards.

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Answer 9

whoit Author

Level 1

16 points

Sep 14, 2009 1:13 PM in response to whoit

I've now upgraded to 3.1.1 for my Touch 2G and the picture issues are the same.
Sometime they save in the native res, and sometimes not.

It's like sometimes it's saving the pic and sometimes it's a thumbnail/preview.

Anyone have a clue why this is not consistent?

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Answer 10

May 28, 2009 4:07 PM in response to whoit

it's a recognised bug, one of the recent software upgrades was supposed to fix it, some people report it did, others say it didn't.

tell apple: http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipodtouch.html

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Answer 11

A A P L

Level 7

21,764 points

May 28, 2009 3:55 PM in response to whoit

Well, yes, it does downsize them, but are you talking about how they look on the iPod or the computer?

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Answer 12

whoit Author

Level 1

16 points

May 28, 2009 4:11 PM in response to Anna Sandham

Hopefully v3 will fix this too!

Thanks.

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Answer 13

A A P L

Level 7

21,764 points

May 28, 2009 4:21 PM in response to whoit

Yes, I have seen this.
Not sure why, but it doesn't happen often.
One of the guys here testing 3.0 beta 5 says it's better.
So, maybe he hasn't run into the issue, or it's fixed 🙂

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Answer 14

May 29, 2009 12:57 PM in response to whoit

yes i'm a she. and no, i had no problem. dunno why AAPL thought you were being argumentative.

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Answer 15

whoit Author

Level 1

16 points

May 29, 2009 7:48 PM in response to Anna Sandham

Well, whatever.
Thanks again Anna - I'm sure I'll see you around the board.

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