Quality of your images in WebAsyst Photos — now much better

A minor update for WebAsyst Photos has been released, in which we have fine-tuned the photo thumbnail generation parameters: the sharpening filter and the saving quality of JPEG images.

The main goal was to adjust the parameters in such a way that all routines performing photo compression to specified sizes in WebAsyst Photos yield as high quality as if you were using, say, Photoshop for the same purpose. Just upload your photos and stay confident that they are prepared for publication in fine fashion.

Tests were made with very different kinds of images: landscapes, portraits, photos with a high ISO setting, screen captures, icons, etc. In the process of finding the best parameter values we compared the compression results for the same images achieved with various online and standalone pieces of software such as Flickr, Google Picasa, and Adobe Photoshop (resizing down to the specified image size, sharpening filter, and the “Save for Web & Devices” option).

As a result, the fine-tuned sharpening and file saving values allowed us to significantly increase the image quality — in so far as it is possible with the PHP extensions Imagick and GD. The average thumbnail file size has become larger by 50%. Note that updated compression parameters will be applied only to newly uploaded image files during the generation of their thumbnails of all supported sizes: 96, 144, 256, 512, 750, 970. The previously uploaded images and their thumbnails will not be affected.

Updating your WebAsyst Photos is recommended.