container file formats

[tirtza]

I'm saving eps images in a filemaker container field as references. Since filemaker actually only saves the thumbnail, the images are not so clear. Is there any way to force filemaker to save the actual image and not the thumbnail?

[Anatoli]

IMHO -- not from EPS.

[stanley]

FileMaker's thumbnailing of EPS files is pretty miserable. The only file format it really seems to handle well in that respect is JPEG, in my experience.

If you store actual Large images in the database, you can quickly run out of room - instead you ought to consider making your own thumbnails (I recommend making them JPEGs) and using those as your thumbnails within the database, then point to the larger EPS file via an external reference...

-Stanley

[tirtza]

I can't use JPEG because since it's pixels it distorts the image . Any other ideas?

[Anatoli]

:

It always works for ten thousand JPG pictures in our FM.

[stanley]

Yeah, I don't understand that either. We use JPEGs for thumbnails specifically because FMP does such a good job scaling them. However, the JPEG has to be somewhere in the ballpark of the size you're going to display. We've noticed a big difference, when showing a 72x72 thumbnail, between a 200x200 original, and a 2400x2400 original. The 200x200 always looks better, probably because there's so much less scaling to be done in FMP.

In other words, you've got to not only reformat an image to JPEG to use as a thumbnail, you've got to scale it down as well. You can automate this kind of thing in any number of image editing apps (which, by the way, will do a better job of scaling than FMP will.)

-Stanley

[tirtza]

I cannot use JPG because it pixelates the image. Additionally I need the image to be very large. I noticed that my images only get distorted when the file size is very big. Does that make sense? Does FM only store the thumbnail after exceeding a certain file size?

[tirtza]

Here's another wierd thing. Some of the images which are distorted in FM print out beautifully while others print out distorted. Why does this happen???

[stanley]

There can be a number of reasons for what you describe. Are you printing the same layout all the time, and seeing the variations within that one layout? In that case, often you run into a situation where FileMaker has a problem with very very large images & prints them a bit strangely at times.

You have to look at how the container field is actually formatted. If most of your images are nearly the same dimensions, they'll look fine even if you've got them being resized. Then you put an image with vastly different dimensions in, and it gets distorted.

Otherwise, there's not enough info here to really know what's happening - platform, image format, image size, FMP version, etc., would all be helpful.

-Stanley

[Anatoli]

RE: I cannot use JPG because it pixelates the image.

Only if you wrongly resizes JPG.

If you create small JPG for thumbnail and URL link to any other required image from the FM, you can have small size of FM, instant representation of what to expect and any picture available.

[stanley]

That's what I keep saying!

[Anatoli]

Yes, it is Tirtza who still not get the idea