Inefficient FM picture storage

[Wrangler]

Well, I'm not getting much feedback on my ActiveX issue, so here's another concern. I have been testing the file sizes of databases containing pictures. Each record has a PNG graphic requiring 8K to store on disk. FileMaker needs about 20K for each picture (after the database is compressed).

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a good reason for this? Is it a bug? a weakness in the database structure? This occurs in FM6 as well as FM7. Using a new feature in FM7, storing files in container fields also has a size multiplying effect.

Any comments will be appreciated.

[Vaughan]

FMP is probably storing previews in its native format.

[dkemme]

There was a comment in the converting to FM7 tech breifs that confirms what Vaughn states, Pict format images become very large in FM7. I've heard that jpeg might be more compressed but have not tested.

[bruceR]

How did you get the picture into the field? Copy and paste or import? Copy/paste is extremely inefficient and in prior versions would bloat file size 10X.

[Triodes]

HI,

I have increased file sizes going to 7.0, even for tables containing only text. 50-100% increase on all the files. Don't know why, seems overhead has increased quite a bit in the new version.

Jim