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 sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 471 pixels and compressed the image at 29% jpeg quality.

Then they reduced to a 46 color gif.

Then they reduced to a 29 color gif.

Then someone added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 311 pixels and compressed the image at 38% jpeg quality.

Someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 385 pixels and compressed the image at 44% jpeg quality.

Then someone reduced to a 37 color gif.

Then they resized the image to 511 pixels and compressed the image at 37% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 382 pixels and compressed the image at 34% jpeg quality.

Someone else resized the image to 412 pixels and compressed the image at 25% jpeg quality.

Then they resized the image to 358 pixels and compressed the image at 28% jpeg quality.

Someone else added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 512 pixels and compressed the image at 29% jpeg quality.

Then someone reduced to a 40 color gif and then someone reduced to a 44 color gif.

Then they added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 313 pixels, compressed the image at 35% jpeg quality and then someone resized the image to 507 pixels and compressed the image at 22% jpeg quality.

Someone added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 348 pixels, compressed the image at 14% jpeg quality and then someone resized the image to 375 pixels and compressed the image at 15% jpeg quality.

After that, they resized the image to 391 pixels and compressed the image at 20% jpeg quality and someone reduced to a 48 color gif.

Someone else resized the image to 492 pixels, compressed the image at 12% jpeg quality and someone added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 376 pixels and compressed the image at 26% jpeg quality.

Then someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 553 pixels and compressed the image at 18% jpeg quality and someone else reduced to a 47 color gif.

Then they resized the image to 536 pixels, compressed the image at 34% jpeg quality and then they resized the image to 380 pixels and compressed the image at 20% jpeg quality.

Then someone reduced to a 10 color gif and someone resized the image to 315 pixels and compressed the image at 29% jpeg quality.

After that, they reduced to a 30 color gif and then someone resized the image to 352 pixels and compressed the image at 30% jpeg quality.

Finally someone reduced to a 44 color gif.

Oh my, that got pretty bad.

Website by Joachim Michaelis