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 contrast, resized the image to 437 pixels and compressed the image at 58% jpeg quality.

Then they resized the image to 365 pixels and compressed the image at 43% jpeg quality.

Then someone resized the image to 538 pixels and compressed the image at 46% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 350 pixels and compressed the image at 43% jpeg quality.

Someone reduced to a 41 color gif.

Someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 542 pixels and compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 306 pixels and compressed the image at 20% jpeg quality.

After that, they added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 371 pixels and compressed the image at 26% jpeg quality.

After that, they resized the image to 309 pixels and compressed the image at 15% jpeg quality.

Then someone resized the image to 378 pixels and compressed the image at 11% jpeg quality.

After that, they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 430 pixels and compressed the image at 34% jpeg quality.

Then they resized the image to 571 pixels, compressed the image at 13% jpeg quality and someone resized the image to 380 pixels and compressed the image at 26% jpeg quality.

Someone else reduced to a 43 color gif and someone resized the image to 427 pixels and compressed the image at 24% jpeg quality.

After that, they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 404 pixels, compressed the image at 13% jpeg quality and then they resized the image to 330 pixels and compressed the image at 10% jpeg quality.

Someone else resized the image to 331 pixels, compressed the image at 14% jpeg quality and then they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 356 pixels and compressed the image at 11% jpeg quality.

Then someone reduced to a 20 color gif and someone else reduced to a 14 color gif.

Someone resized the image to 519 pixels, compressed the image at 12% jpeg quality and after that, they resized the image to 548 pixels and compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality.

Someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 358 pixels, compressed the image at 23% jpeg quality and someone resized the image to 386 pixels and compressed the image at 32% jpeg quality.

Someone else resized the image to 537 pixels, compressed the image at 9% jpeg quality and after that, they resized the image to 320 pixels and compressed the image at 34% jpeg quality.

After that, they added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 522 pixels and compressed the image at 15% jpeg quality and then someone reduced to a 11 color gif.

Finally they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 429 pixels and compressed the image at 19% jpeg quality.

Oh my, that got pretty bad.

Website by Joachim Michaelis