Re: Choosing the Initial Thumbnail Size

I assume there must be a way to regenerate your thumbnails after the 
fact? If so I'm tempted to redo mine a little larger.

I haven't been paying attention, so I might have missed a response to 
that end (I apologize if so). Does anyone have a way to do this for the 
entire set of images in the database?

Thanks,

			- Matt

[email protected] wrote:
> 
> I have been playing around with IMatch (v. 3.4.0.29) in the last few
> days.  One of the things that seems important at first is the choice
> of thumbnail size, since it cannot be changed once the database is
> created.  And you don't want to import 50,000 photos and find out
> that the thumbnail size is too small to see!!!
> 
> TEST #1: I created a few test databases to try and figure out what
> the optimum size is for my situation, and thought that I would share
> the info with all of you (in hope that another newbie might find it
> of interest).
> 
> All of the databases were created using the same number of photos:
> 1299.  Most of the photos (> 95%) are JPG, with the rest Canon RAW. 
> At the moment, I have a total of around 10,000 photos, but I thought
> that the smaller amount would give a good representation that could
> be extrapolated upwards.
> 
> FYI: I have a 19" monitor set at 1280 x 1024.  The thumbnail size
> that you choose should depend on your settings (as well as your
> eyesight).
> 
> I tried three different thumbnail settings: 160x160, 200x200, and
> 300x300.  I started at 160x160, since that is what a few people
> recommended.  I ended at 300x00 since I have read a few people
> recommend setting the thumbnail size at the largest setting, and
> then choosing a Thumb-Lens Setting (which is basically a zoom ratio)
> to reduce it later.
> 
> I kept all other settings/options the same for these tests
> (including the thumbnail quality).  In the end, the only file that
> changed size was the .IMT file (which I assume stands for IMatch
> thumbnail).
> 
> Here are the resultant sizes for the IMT files:
> 
> 160x160:  8,466 KB
> 200x200: 10,569 KB
> 300x300: 18,980 KB
> 
> So if I extrapolate these to 10,000 photos, I end up with:
> 
> 160x160:  65,173 KB
> 200x200:  81,363 KB
> 300x300: 146,112 KB
> 
> TEST #2: My next (and most important) consideration was ergonomics
> (or how does it look on the screen).
> 
> Let me start at the largest thumbnail size...
> 
> At 300x300, I was only able to fit three thumbnails across the
> screen comfortably.  Although the thumbnails looked great, I would
> end up getting carpal tunnel from all of the scrolling I would have
> to do.  I then reduced the zoom ratio to 75% (which makes the
> thumbnails 225x225), and I was able to fit four thumbnails across
> the screen, which wasn't too bad.  If you further reduce the zoom
> ratio to 50% (which makes the thumbnails 150x150), I could fit five
> thumbnails across.  But IMHO, if you are going to consistently
> reduce the size of the thumbnails by using the zoom ratio, then you
> might as well save yourself some disk space and start with the
> smaller size in the first place.
> 
> At 160x160, I was able to fit five thumbnails across the screen
> comfortably, but there was some unused space on the right side of
> the screen.  Why waste screen space?  So I moved to the next size up.
> 
> I created another test database using the 180x180 size.  But this
> time I only used a few dozen photos.  At 180x180, I was able to fit
> five thumbnails across the screen comfortably, but this time there
> was no unused screen space and the thumbs were larger.  I decided
> that this was the best thumb size for my situation.
> 
> TEST #3:
> 
> Since I settled on 180x180 as my thumbnail size, I decided to try a
> few tests on the Thumbnail Quality.
> 
> Once again, I created three test databases: The first with quality
> set to its lowest setting, the second with quality set to its mid-
> level setting (which is lower than the default setting), and the
> third with quality set to its highest setting.
> 
> I kept all other settings/options the same for these tests.  Once
> again, the only file that changed size was the .IMT file.
> 
> Here are the resultant sizes for the IMT files:
> 
> Lowest quality: 2,158 KB
> Mid-level quality: 6,363 KB
> Highest quantity: 16,877 KB
> 
> I could barely tell a difference between the mid-level and high-
> level quality.  But I could definitely tell a difference at the low-
> level.
> 
> SUMMARY:
> 
> - Create test databases using various thumbnail sizes and quality to
> determine what works best for you
> 
> - I ended up choosing the 180x180 thumbnail size at the mid-level
> (~50%) quality setting. As I said at the beginning, I have a 19"
> monitor set at 1280 x 1024.  The thumbnail size that you choose
> should depend on your settings (as well as your eyesight).
> 
> IMATCH RECOMMENDATIONS:
> 
> - Allow the user to change their thumbnail setting once the database
> is created.  I understand that it will probably take a long time to
> do this operation, but is better than having to recreate the whole
> database itself.
> 
> - Allow the user to choose the zoom ratio (via the Thumb Lens) for
> thumbnail size.  If a user chooses a larger than needed thumbnail
> size (such as 300x300), they currently only have the 50% and 75%
> options.  It would be better if they were allowed to type in a zoom
> ratio from 0-400%.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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