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 526 pixels and compressed the image at 66% jpeg quality.

Then someone reduced to a 29 color gif.

Then they reduced to a 39 color gif.

Someone else added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 341 pixels and compressed the image at 25% jpeg quality.

After that, they resized the image to 349 pixels and compressed the image at 36% jpeg quality.

After that, they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 392 pixels and compressed the image at 55% jpeg quality.

After that and they reduced to a 56 color gif.

Someone else resized the image to 373 pixels and compressed the image at 26% jpeg quality.

After that and they reduced to a 53 color gif.

After that, they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 550 pixels and compressed the image at 23% jpeg quality.

Then someone reduced to a 18 color gif.

Then someone resized the image to 476 pixels, compressed the image at 25% jpeg quality and then they resized the image to 423 pixels and compressed the image at 20% jpeg quality.

Someone reduced to a 36 color gif and then someone resized the image to 539 pixels and compressed the image at 28% jpeg quality.

Then someone resized the image to 556 pixels and compressed the image at 9% jpeg quality and someone else reduced to a 23 color gif.

After that, they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 548 pixels and compressed the image at 29% jpeg quality and then someone reduced to a 10 color gif.

Someone else reduced to a 34 color gif and someone reduced to a 40 color gif.

Someone resized the image to 427 pixels, compressed the image at 11% jpeg quality and someone added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 358 pixels and compressed the image at 24% jpeg quality.

Then someone resized the image to 454 pixels, compressed the image at 30% jpeg quality and then they resized the image to 361 pixels and compressed the image at 20% jpeg quality.

Then they resized the image to 477 pixels, compressed the image at 24% jpeg quality and someone resized the image to 489 pixels and compressed the image at 31% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 334 pixels, compressed the image at 9% jpeg quality and someone else resized the image to 568 pixels and compressed the image at 19% jpeg quality.

Finally they reduced to a 44 color gif.

Oh my, that got pretty bad.

Website by Joachim Michaelis