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 44 color gif.

Someone resized the image to 419 pixels and compressed the image at 48% jpeg quality.

Then someone resized the image to 415 pixels and compressed the image at 48% jpeg quality.

Then someone reduced to a 41 color gif.

Someone resized the image to 377 pixels and compressed the image at 57% jpeg quality.

Then someone reduced to a 40 color gif.

Then they reduced to a 41 color gif.

Then someone resized the image to 556 pixels and compressed the image at 21% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 543 pixels and compressed the image at 23% jpeg quality.

After that, they added a bit of contrast, added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 366 pixels and compressed the image at 23% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 340 pixels and compressed the image at 25% jpeg quality.

Then they resized the image to 369 pixels, compressed the image at 33% jpeg quality and after that and they reduced to a 21 color gif.

Someone resized the image to 576 pixels, compressed the image at 32% jpeg quality and after that and they reduced to a 35 color gif.

Someone reduced to a 11 color gif and then someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 309 pixels and compressed the image at 25% jpeg quality.

Someone else added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 363 pixels, compressed the image at 26% jpeg quality and after that, they resized the image to 362 pixels and compressed the image at 11% jpeg quality.

Then someone resized the image to 326 pixels and compressed the image at 26% jpeg quality and then someone reduced to a 23 color gif.

Someone else resized the image to 509 pixels, compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality and someone else resized the image to 354 pixels and compressed the image at 35% jpeg quality.

Then someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 340 pixels, compressed the image at 30% jpeg quality and after that, they resized the image to 494 pixels and compressed the image at 26% jpeg quality.

Then they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 525 pixels, compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality and then they resized the image to 404 pixels and compressed the image at 11% jpeg quality.

After that, they resized the image to 576 pixels, compressed the image at 35% jpeg quality and after that, they resized the image to 426 pixels and compressed the image at 22% jpeg quality.

Finally they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 350 pixels and compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality.

Oh my, that got pretty bad.

Website by Joachim Michaelis