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 added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 539 pixels and compressed the image at 61% jpeg quality.

After that, they resized the image to 535 pixels and compressed the image at 38% jpeg quality.

Then they added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 532 pixels and compressed the image at 39% jpeg quality.

Then they reduced to a 49 color gif.

Someone reduced to a 30 color gif.

After that and they reduced to a 42 color gif.

Then they reduced to a 36 color gif.

Someone else added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 465 pixels and compressed the image at 9% jpeg quality.

Then they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 365 pixels and compressed the image at 29% jpeg quality.

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

Someone else resized the image to 378 pixels and compressed the image at 18% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 436 pixels, compressed the image at 33% jpeg quality and then someone resized the image to 423 pixels and compressed the image at 19% jpeg quality.

Then they resized the image to 518 pixels, compressed the image at 24% jpeg quality and someone else resized the image to 428 pixels and compressed the image at 33% jpeg quality.

Then someone reduced to a 42 color gif and someone else added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 493 pixels and compressed the image at 23% jpeg quality.

After that, they resized the image to 378 pixels and compressed the image at 18% jpeg quality and someone else reduced to a 12 color gif.

Then someone resized the image to 560 pixels, compressed the image at 11% jpeg quality and after that, they added a bit of contrast, added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 455 pixels and compressed the image at 21% jpeg quality.

Then someone resized the image to 467 pixels and compressed the image at 15% jpeg quality and someone reduced to a 17 color gif.

Then someone resized the image to 493 pixels, compressed the image at 16% jpeg quality and then someone resized the image to 406 pixels and compressed the image at 32% jpeg quality.

Someone else resized the image to 347 pixels, compressed the image at 34% jpeg quality and someone else resized the image to 470 pixels and compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality.

After that, they resized the image to 416 pixels, compressed the image at 12% jpeg quality and someone resized the image to 464 pixels and compressed the image at 15% jpeg quality.

Finally they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 372 pixels and compressed the image at 35% jpeg quality.

Oh my, that got pretty bad.

Website by Joachim Michaelis