Graphics

Internet Image Degradation

Do things grow old in cyberspace? The answer is "yes"...

When pictures are constantly copied from website to website, and recompressed and rescaled every time, an interesting loss of quality occurs gradually over time. This page tries to simulate and display this gradual devolution. The first picture is the original.

First someone reduced to a 38 color gif.

Someone else resized the image to 354 pixels and compressed the image at 22% jpeg quality.

Then someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 563 pixels and compressed the image at 46% jpeg quality.

Someone else added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 512 pixels and compressed the image at 29% jpeg quality.

Someone else reduced to a 47 color gif.

Then they reduced to a 53 color gif.

After that, they added a bit of contrast, added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 529 pixels and compressed the image at 70% jpeg quality.

Someone reduced to a 53 color gif.

Someone reduced to a 41 color gif.

Then they reduced to a 17 color gif.

Then someone resized the image to 395 pixels and compressed the image at 32% jpeg quality.

Then they reduced to a 10 color gif and someone resized the image to 324 pixels and compressed the image at 18% jpeg quality.

Someone else resized the image to 449 pixels and compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality and then someone reduced to a 44 color gif.

Then they resized the image to 362 pixels, compressed the image at 24% jpeg quality and someone resized the image to 559 pixels and compressed the image at 21% jpeg quality.

Someone reduced to a 38 color gif and then they resized the image to 445 pixels and compressed the image at 35% jpeg quality.

Then they resized the image to 316 pixels, compressed the image at 9% jpeg quality and then someone resized the image to 522 pixels and compressed the image at 14% jpeg quality.

Someone else resized the image to 339 pixels, compressed the image at 10% jpeg quality and then they resized the image to 352 pixels and compressed the image at 20% jpeg quality.

After that, they resized the image to 520 pixels, compressed the image at 19% jpeg quality and then they added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 494 pixels and compressed the image at 23% jpeg quality.

Then they added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 504 pixels, compressed the image at 10% jpeg quality and then they resized the image to 476 pixels and compressed the image at 22% jpeg quality.

Then someone resized the image to 459 pixels, compressed the image at 10% jpeg quality and after that, they resized the image to 364 pixels and compressed the image at 35% jpeg quality.

Finally they reduced to a 17 color gif.

Oh my, that got pretty bad.

Website by Joachim Michaelis