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 569 pixels and compressed the image at 53% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 494 pixels and compressed the image at 66% jpeg quality.

Someone resized the image to 564 pixels and compressed the image at 28% jpeg quality.

Then they reduced to a 48 color gif.

After that and they reduced to a 42 color gif.

Someone else added a bit of contrast, added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 342 pixels and compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality.

After that and they reduced to a 46 color gif.

Someone resized the image to 425 pixels and compressed the image at 8% jpeg quality.

Then someone resized the image to 433 pixels and compressed the image at 34% jpeg quality.

Someone else added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 571 pixels and compressed the image at 27% jpeg quality.

Someone else resized the image to 392 pixels and compressed the image at 14% jpeg quality.

After that, they added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 565 pixels and compressed the image at 18% jpeg quality and someone else reduced to a 44 color gif.

Someone else reduced to a 11 color gif and after that, they added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 577 pixels and compressed the image at 33% jpeg quality.

After that, they resized the image to 553 pixels and compressed the image at 28% jpeg quality and someone else reduced to a 39 color gif.

After that, they resized the image to 497 pixels, compressed the image at 35% jpeg quality and then they resized the image to 371 pixels and compressed the image at 33% jpeg quality.

After that, they resized the image to 425 pixels, compressed the image at 33% jpeg quality and then they resized the image to 305 pixels and compressed the image at 20% jpeg quality.

Someone added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 521 pixels, compressed the image at 13% jpeg quality and after that, they resized the image to 577 pixels and compressed the image at 34% jpeg quality.

After that, they resized the image to 391 pixels and compressed the image at 19% jpeg quality and then someone reduced to a 30 color gif.

Someone added a bit of contrast, resized the image to 316 pixels, compressed the image at 24% jpeg quality and someone resized the image to 549 pixels and compressed the image at 19% jpeg quality.

After that, they reduced to a 16 color gif and someone else resized the image to 347 pixels and compressed the image at 31% jpeg quality.

Finally they added a bit of sharpen because it looked blurry, resized the image to 380 pixels and compressed the image at 25% jpeg quality.

Oh my, that got pretty bad.

See also this experiment involving VHS tapes.

Website by Joachim Michaelis