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 reduced to a 37 color gif.

Then someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 503 pixels and compressed the image at 70% jpeg quality.

Someone else resized the image to 376 pixels and compressed the image at 48% jpeg quality.

Someone reduced to a 33 color gif.

Someone else resized the image to 555 pixels and compressed the image at 36% jpeg quality.

Then they reduced to a 46 color gif.

After that, they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 526 pixels and compressed the image at 55% jpeg quality.

Someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 515 pixels and compressed the image at 10% jpeg quality.

Then they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 389 pixels and compressed the image at 28% jpeg quality.

After that, they resized the image to 324 pixels and compressed the image at 20% jpeg quality.

After that, they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 440 pixels and compressed the image at 12% jpeg quality.

Someone else resized the image to 535 pixels, compressed the image at 31% jpeg quality and someone else added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 542 pixels and compressed the image at 13% jpeg quality.

After that, they added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 341 pixels, compressed the image at 14% jpeg quality and after that, they resized the image to 514 pixels and compressed the image at 20% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 438 pixels, compressed the image at 19% jpeg quality and someone resized the image to 575 pixels and compressed the image at 25% jpeg quality.

Someone else resized the image to 542 pixels, compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality and then they resized the image to 423 pixels and compressed the image at 21% jpeg quality.

Someone reduced to a 44 color gif and then someone resized the image to 448 pixels and compressed the image at 18% jpeg quality.

After that, they reduced to a 43 color gif and someone else added a bit of contrast, added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 399 pixels and compressed the image at 25% jpeg quality.

After that, they added a bit of contrast, added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 440 pixels, compressed the image at 29% jpeg quality and after that, they resized the image to 386 pixels and compressed the image at 26% jpeg quality.

Someone else resized the image to 361 pixels, compressed the image at 25% jpeg quality and someone else added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 579 pixels and compressed the image at 18% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 530 pixels and compressed the image at 15% jpeg quality and someone else reduced to a 35 color gif.

Finally someone reduced to a 32 color gif.

Oh my, that got pretty bad.

Website by Joachim Michaelis