the Backside

[DJkevintron]

I know you have a strict no scanning rule but is this someting you will reconsider for back of packages?

[shmax]

If you submit one and it gets accepted, and no one's the wiser, then what you do in the privacy of your own nerd-hole is your own business!

[sppower]

I have a question about the readability of package back photos. I'm working with Airazor's box right now. I have cropped the photo so that it is 1553 x 2569 and all of the text, down to the tech spec, instructions, and quality guarantee is perfectly readable. When I resize it to 605 x 1000, it looks like this:
http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae160/sppower/AirazorPackageBack.jpg

Is this acceptable readability?

[shmax]

Hey, not too bad! Is that a scan? No worries if it is, because the quality is pretty good. But we would like to see a little higher resolution. Is 605x1000 the largest you can get it while staying under 250k? Why not try something around 1200px tall, and if you need to, bump the compression up a notch? We're definitely looking for feedback on this stuff, as I may have to increase the minimum allowed file size specifically for the backs. Also, a little nerdy birdy tells me that those card backs are more reddish in tone, whereas yours is veering a touch towards the pink. Can you correct that?

Thanks much, man, looking great...

[sppower]

Thanks for the quick reply and the pointers!

Okay, so, if I may break this down and find the right size. Here is the undoctored (crop) of the original photo at full resolution:
http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae160/sppower/AirazorUndoctoredCropofPhoto.jpg
I agree with you, I think the colors are a little too pale. Reminds of the way Hot Rod looks on some of the '86 Movie DVDs.

Okay, here's the same crop, same resolution, but with the contrast +17, brightness +5, I think it was, and hue +7 or so.
http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae160/sppower/AirazorFixedFullResolution.jpg
Colorwise, I think it looks much closer to the box that's sitting in front of me.

Alright, so here's 1200:
http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae160/sppower/Airazor1200.jpg
I had to save it at Quality 7 to keep the file size down.
And again at Quality 10:
http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae160/sppower/Airazor12002.jpg

Just for a few options, here's 1400:
http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae160/sppower/Airazor1400.jpg
It's saved at Quality 9, as once I got up to these dimensions, I didn't want to sacrifice too much to keep the file size down. I'll just keep saving at 9 from here on out.

Here's 1600:
http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae160/sppower/Airazor1600.jpg
This seems pretty readable to me, but it might be a little big for what you're looking for.

[shmax]

Hmm, is it possible that photobucket is resizing those images? None of the larger image sizes you've posted seem to be longer than 1000 or so when I view them on my end. Try uploading the larger ones directly to this forum; you should be able to attach images...

[sppower]

Ooh. I tried to upload them directly, but it says the max file size is 256 KiB, so I'll try them on Picasa:
http://picasaweb.google.com/11021014173 ... directlink
You'll have to download them individually from the album to see them full sized.

[shmax]

Much better! The 1200px-tall one seems legible enough to me. Do you think you can get the file size down to under 250k without losing readability? Thanks much Sp, you're doing great...

[sppower]

To get it down that low, I have to save at it quality 7, but I think its still readable. I guess that's the magic number!

[shmax]

Can we see what the quality 7 shot looks like? If I have to I can raise the max size limitation (but I'd rather not)...

[sppower]

Sure! Here you go:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9p ... directlink

[shmax]

Very close, but the legibility does seem to suffer a bit. I've increased the max file size to 300k--care to bump up the quality a notch or two? Thanks much...

[sppower]

The next bump up to 8 puts the pic at 312 kb:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-q ... directlink

9=380 kb
10=490
11=668
12=935

[shmax]

Okay, that's helpful. I'm going to go for a jog and mull it over a bit, then get back to you. Thanks so much for taking the time!

[shmax]

For now I've bumped the max size limit up to 400k. Think that'll do?