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As people dealing with images, we have always wanted to illustrate the posts of río Wang with plenty of images. However, it was not easy to figure out how we could do this the best. Our old readers may recall how the initial modest number of two or three illustrations slowly increased into galleries of forty or fifty pictures. These, however, slowed down the display and made difficult the overview of the post.

We have gradually developed that characteristic solution of río Wang, where dozens of images were composed into one mosaic, and the pictures appeared in pop-up windows when moving the mouse over the mosaic tiles. There are many reasons why we have loved this solution. We could illustrate the post with a large number of pictures – the record holder, I think, was the Jewish cemetery of Lesko with its nearly three hundred photos – without significantly slowing the download. The images held together in one mosaic did not push apart the paragraphs to a great extent, making it more pleasant to follow along. You could browse at your discretion among the images, and discover the connections. But we loved it most because in the mosaic tiles we could emphasize such meaningful details, which were often overshadowed in the original images. Thus we could create interesting connections between the expectations formed on the basis of the details and the full image displayed in the pop-up window, which have also affected the interpretation of the images. And last but not least, the richness and context of the mosaic composition often made excusable even the weaker images.

It was due to the technical problems of the pop-up windows – occasional flickering, poor positioning – and to the requests of our readers that we began to experiment with new solutions. This was doubly the merit of Lloyd who, first as a linguist reads also the commentaries of the Hungarian version of the blog, and thus found Gábor’s request to convert the mosaic into a scrollable gallery, and second as an informatician undertook to realize it. And also the merit of our readers, who with their commentaries helped the development of the final version.

From now on, if you move the mouse over the mosaic, the usual small images are displayed in pop-up windows, and if you click on it, you can scroll through a gallery of large images. This version retains the advantages of the previous solution, but corrects its technical problems. At the same time it enables you to view the images enlarged to full screen when leafing through the gallery. In this case, the pictures download a bit slowly, the reason for which is that we always upload them in their original size (at least our own photos), so that everyone can freely use them according to the Creative Commons (BY-NC) rules. A serious drawback of this solution is that in this large size the imperfections of our photos are more conspicuous as well. On this problem we are still working :)

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6 comentarios:

Gabor dijo...

Thank you Lloyd and Tamas!

walter dijo...

If I click on an image in this post, I get the new image overlaying the dimmed background after a slight delay. I can't make this any bigger or right-click to save it. On the other hand, if I right-click on one of the small mosaic images, opening in new tab as is my wont, then I get a full-screen image that by a further click I can enlarge much more to full resolution. Of course, I may have missed something in your explanation, but so far I can't see what is gained. Apologies if this seems pedantic.

Rupert Neil Bumfrey dijo...

I echo the thoughts of http://www.blogger.com/profile/02603255065547405744 ;-)

Studiolum dijo...

Walter: No, it absolutely does not seem pedantic, but a well-formed question :)

As to what is gained: first of all, the most important thing is that nothing is lost. The old floating window function you and I have loved so much, and with many good reasons, has remained unchanged, and even improved, as it does not seem to flicker any more.

On the other hand, now the images can be leafed through as a gallery, in almost full-screen size. Probably many people – including me – will not often use this function, but others, who are accustomed to it from other image viewers, and have asked for it for a long time, are really happy to have it. For them it is clearly a gain. Yes, they could have opened the full size image even until now, but right-clicking, then closing, then right-clicking again was not as comfortable as this way.

And here's a trick you can use: When the image is displayed in the slide viewer, the left third of the image becomes a clickable area that invokes the previous image, and the right third behaves similarly to go next. But if you right-click in the center of the image, you can view the full size image directly, and resize it to full resolution, and also save it, if that is your wont.

Rupert: I too :)

catherine darley dijo...

Là, ça me semble parfait ! Les deux possibilités, idéal.

walter dijo...

Ah, the trick explains a lot: I couldn't understand why a right-click was giving me different outcomes at different times! I now see I was in different parts of the image: tracking the cursor across makes the division clear, exactly as you describe. Perfect.