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 sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 498 pixels and compressed the image at 40% jpeg quality.

Someone reduced to a 34 color gif.

Someone resized the image to 412 pixels and compressed the image at 44% jpeg quality.

Then they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 412 pixels and compressed the image at 28% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 565 pixels and compressed the image at 49% jpeg quality.

After that, they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 539 pixels and compressed the image at 36% jpeg quality.

Then they reduced to a 35 color gif.

After that, they resized the image to 430 pixels and compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality.

Then they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 558 pixels and compressed the image at 22% jpeg quality.

Then someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 414 pixels and compressed the image at 20% jpeg quality.

Then someone resized the image to 548 pixels and compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 409 pixels, compressed the image at 17% jpeg quality and after that and they reduced to a 15 color gif.

Then they resized the image to 544 pixels, compressed the image at 34% jpeg quality and then someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 424 pixels and compressed the image at 35% jpeg quality.

After that, they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 537 pixels, compressed the image at 10% jpeg quality and someone resized the image to 446 pixels and compressed the image at 26% jpeg quality.

Then they reduced to a 28 color gif and then someone reduced to a 10 color gif.

Someone else added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 358 pixels and compressed the image at 17% jpeg quality and someone else reduced to a 38 color gif.

Someone resized the image to 486 pixels, compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality and then they resized the image to 397 pixels and compressed the image at 12% jpeg quality.

Someone reduced to a 12 color gif and someone reduced to a 33 color gif.

Then they resized the image to 447 pixels, compressed the image at 22% jpeg quality and after that, they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 511 pixels and compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 324 pixels, compressed the image at 35% jpeg quality and then someone resized the image to 517 pixels and compressed the image at 18% jpeg quality.

Finally someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 308 pixels and compressed the image at 25% jpeg quality.

Oh my, that got pretty bad.

Website by Joachim Michaelis