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 resized the image to 462 pixels and compressed the image at 45% jpeg quality.

Someone reduced to a 24 color gif.

Someone else resized the image to 547 pixels and compressed the image at 28% jpeg quality.

Then they resized the image to 471 pixels and compressed the image at 33% jpeg quality.

Then someone resized the image to 303 pixels and compressed the image at 30% jpeg quality.

Someone else reduced to a 37 color gif.

Then someone reduced to a 35 color gif.

Then they resized the image to 530 pixels and compressed the image at 12% jpeg quality.

Then they resized the image to 413 pixels and compressed the image at 18% jpeg quality.

Then they reduced to a 29 color gif.

Someone resized the image to 553 pixels and compressed the image at 29% jpeg quality.

Then they added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 335 pixels and compressed the image at 29% jpeg quality and someone reduced to a 19 color gif.

After that, they reduced to a 28 color gif and someone else added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 563 pixels and compressed the image at 33% jpeg quality.

Someone else added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 556 pixels, compressed the image at 13% jpeg quality and then someone resized the image to 401 pixels and compressed the image at 9% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 373 pixels, compressed the image at 24% jpeg quality and someone resized the image to 301 pixels and compressed the image at 21% jpeg quality.

Then they reduced to a 29 color gif and someone else reduced to a 41 color gif.

After that, they added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 433 pixels, compressed the image at 22% jpeg quality and after that, they added a bit of contrast, added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 509 pixels and compressed the image at 21% jpeg quality.

After that, they resized the image to 426 pixels, compressed the image at 24% jpeg quality and then someone resized the image to 480 pixels and compressed the image at 17% jpeg quality.

After that, they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 499 pixels, compressed the image at 23% jpeg quality and then someone added a bit of contrast, added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 414 pixels and compressed the image at 9% jpeg quality.

Then they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 340 pixels, compressed the image at 8% jpeg quality and then they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 553 pixels and compressed the image at 35% jpeg quality.

Finally they resized the image to 374 pixels and compressed the image at 16% jpeg quality.

Oh my, that got pretty bad.

Website by Joachim Michaelis