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 resized the image to 334 pixels and compressed the image at 22% jpeg quality.

Then they resized the image to 372 pixels and compressed the image at 49% jpeg quality.

Then someone reduced to a 60 color gif.

Someone resized the image to 397 pixels and compressed the image at 62% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 532 pixels and compressed the image at 52% jpeg quality.

Someone reduced to a 42 color gif.

Then they added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 466 pixels and compressed the image at 48% jpeg quality.

Then someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 329 pixels and compressed the image at 23% jpeg quality.

Someone reduced to a 59 color gif.

Someone else resized the image to 520 pixels and compressed the image at 19% jpeg quality.

Someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 487 pixels and compressed the image at 11% jpeg quality.

Then they reduced to a 19 color gif and then someone resized the image to 334 pixels and compressed the image at 16% jpeg quality.

Someone reduced to a 20 color gif and then they resized the image to 399 pixels and compressed the image at 9% jpeg quality.

Then someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 560 pixels, compressed the image at 18% jpeg quality and someone else resized the image to 363 pixels and compressed the image at 21% jpeg quality.

Someone else added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 370 pixels, compressed the image at 33% jpeg quality and then someone resized the image to 355 pixels and compressed the image at 13% jpeg quality.

Then they reduced to a 25 color gif and after that, they resized the image to 465 pixels and compressed the image at 13% jpeg quality.

Then they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 549 pixels, compressed the image at 15% jpeg quality and someone else resized the image to 520 pixels and compressed the image at 18% jpeg quality.

Then they resized the image to 472 pixels, compressed the image at 24% jpeg quality and then they resized the image to 483 pixels and compressed the image at 13% jpeg quality.

Someone else resized the image to 327 pixels, compressed the image at 17% jpeg quality and then they added a bit of contrast, added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 527 pixels and compressed the image at 11% jpeg quality.

Someone else resized the image to 348 pixels and compressed the image at 21% jpeg quality and someone reduced to a 24 color gif.

Finally someone resized the image to 357 pixels and compressed the image at 20% jpeg quality.

Oh my, that got pretty bad.

Website by Joachim Michaelis