Please Help, PNG resolution problem when resizing

[Mark Silverman]

Thanks for taking the time to look at this and help me out. I am a graphic designer in Miami creating a filemaker database for an online clothing company's website. I am attempting to create an automated system in which our customers will be able to choose a certain "shirt style", "color" and once those parameters are met, they will then be able to choose a "shirt design" to superimpose over their selected shirt style and color. 

 

My problems begin when attempting to resize the "shirt designs" to fit to scale on the desired "shirt style" ... Both "shirt style" png files and "shirt design" png files are formatted in RGB and at 300 dpi ... When I attempt to use filemaker to resize any of my "shirt design" files (1000+ and counting) using the CNS Image plugin, the file will automatically resize the file, but ALSO downgrade my "shirt design" png files dpi to 72 making the Art look extremely pixelated on the 300dpi "shirt style" file!!! 

 

 

I do not understand how this could be happening as I am shrinking a 600x600 pixel 300 dpi file (before resizing) down by 1/3 while attempting to keep the dpi constant at 300. If anything the dpi of the file should INCREASE when resizing down! I do not understand why this would happen or if this is a glitch with the CNS Image Plugin - resize command. It is becoming an extremely frustrating problem for me and I would appreciate any help. Thanks again for your time.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you, 

 

Mark 

[Josh Ormond]

Automatic message

This topic has been moved from "Solutions Wanted" to "Comm-Unity Networking Systems (CNS)".

[milanm]

I came into FileMaker world from the graphic design world (long time ago), you have to change the way of thinking, in my opinion. FileMaker does not act like any known graphic program and does pixelate images both ways (up and down). Not to mention that 300dpi is a forbiden value in the world of database and web development, heavy images tend to cause performance issues that you want to avoid by all means. If you hope that you could embed them all in the container fields and use them from there (and there are +1000 of them as i undersand) then you could likely get very disapointed.

What i do when having the similar situation is try to make the right (lowest possible) resolution and the right size of my image in Photoshop (Fireworks, Corel...) and then place it in the FileMaker container field AS A REFERENCE, so you keep your database as light as possible, and WITHOUT RESIZING.

FileMaker 12 has a fantastic feature that allows you to define the folder on the server machine from which all the users can get the images placed as a reference.

That way you could get some sharp photos inside your database without making it very heavy.

I am not familiar with the plug-in you are mentioning though, maybe it gives some easier options.

[Josh Ormond]

Having run a number of tests with Mark on this issue yesterday...it is clearly an issue with the Plug-in downgrading the image resolution.  Hopefully he will hear back from the Plug-in vendor shortly.

 

FileMaker, in my experience, handle the storage of images very well.  Especially with the new features in 12 for streaming and other container storage options.  Definitely seen some image rendering issues.  But that is really separate from the actual file storage in the database.

 

I came into FileMaker world from the graphic design world (long time ago), you have to change the way of thinking, in my opinion. FileMaker does not act like any known graphic program and does pixelate images both ways (up and down). Not to mention that 300dpi is a forbiden value in the world of database and web development, heavy images tend to cause performance issues that you want to avoid by all means. If you hope that you could embed them all in the container fields and use them from there (and there are +1000 of them as i undersand) then you could likely get very disapointed.

What i do when having the similar situation is try to make the right (lowest possible) resolution and the right size of my image in Photoshop (Fireworks, Corel...) and then place it in the FileMaker container field AS A REFERENCE, so you keep your database as light as possible, and WITHOUT RESIZING.

FileMaker 12 has a fantastic feature that allows you to define the folder on the server machine from which all the users can get the images placed as a reference.

That way you could get some sharp photos inside your database without making it very heavy.

I am not familiar with the plug-in you are mentioning though, maybe it gives some easier options.

[Josh Ormond]

Mark,

Did you ever get a reply from the vendor about this?

[CNS]

Hello Josh,

 

Mark did contact us about the bug he found and we did provide him with an updated plug-in.

 

Thanks,

Jake

[Josh Ormond]

Awesome. Thanks Jake.

 

(I figured it was resolved, but also thought it would be beneficial for everyone to hear it.)