any better ideas ? (image resizing)

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

huh, do you think he has anything to do with Publisher as well ? in which case, by all means, let's tell him ! but rather than an email, maybe we should start a thread somewhere to repertorie *all* the bugs and updates we would like, because be honest, this is not the only one (alas )... (technically, we *all* have Garth's ear... he follows these forums...)

Garth Conboy, President of eBook Technologies, Inc. may have something to say about eBook Publisher! (pssst. check the directory name in "C:\Program Files\" where eBook Publisher is stored. pass it on... )

Seriously, though, Great idea! We can either start a new thread "eBook Publisher Wish List" or add it to the eBook Publisher wiki in a separate section.

if anyone else is faced with this situation, i recommend doing all the code cleanup on the 1150 version *first* ; then save the html / opf, make the book, close. then MAKE A COPY of the html file adding "_1200" to the filename. then you import this file into the _1200 opf which mobi2imp has conveniently created for you, instead of the original html, and add all the margins to the images. this way, you have 2 separate files to address the different format, but you only do the work once.

I also downsize/resize the images larger than '472x...' or '...x595' separately from the 1150 version and place them in another directory so that they do not conflict.

[JSWolf]

My solution is to make sure the images fit in 320x480 and then they won't need to be resized by the creation software.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

My solution is to make sure the images fit in 320x480 and then they won't need to be resized by the creation software.

if you want to use that solution, then you should make the images no bigger than 310 x 430 to account for the space used by the navigation icon at the top, the header, the side margins, and the status bar at the bottom. that is the *usable* screen size.

this is a perfectly good solution, and the simplest ; however, if you are making books for the 1200 as well as the 1150, either you must make 2 sets of images, or use the same images, and simply not have full-screen size in the 1200 version (which, being in color, is kind of a shame).

the problem we're discussing is honestly only pertinent in some specific cases, which are not necessarily the norm ; i ran into it because the images that are in Harry's Austen series are very nice full-color images, which are larger than the imp displays can handle. in anticipation of the day when i will have a full-color e-ink device , i don't want to lose quality by reducing their size / switching them to greyscale, so in the meantime, they must be scaled by the Publisher software to fit the existing screens, and Publisher does not do this properly, so we must make up for it... and around we go again.

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

My solution is to make sure the images fit in 320x480 and then they won't need to be resized by the creation software.

I don't think resizing is the problem, its resizing in the wrong aspect ratio. To retain the 320x480 aspect ratio, you could use any images that scale up proportionately, like 393 x 590 or even 400x600!

If you use the latter (400x600), then your images will work for both the 1150 and 1200 devices, without sacrificing image quality (and appear better on the Kindle/Sony/Cybook as well).

BTW, how does this resizing issue effect the Sony ebook readers?

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by nrapallo

Garth Conboy, President of eBook Technologies, Inc. may have something to say about eBook Publisher! (pssst. check the directory name in "C:\Program Files\" where eBook Publisher is stored. pass it on... )

heh, oops... i think i forgot he was the president, or maybe i never knew. i just thought of him as some really nice developper guy who worked there, and kindly answered my emails. but yes, you're right, as president of ETI he may have a word to say on the subject...

Seriously, though, Great idea! We can either start a new thread "eBook Publisher Wish List" or add it to the eBook Publisher wiki in a separate section.

whatever you think is best.. i think a thread might be good, with a link to the thread in the wiki : some people might not see it in the wiki, but they will see a thread. ideally, maybe we could sweet-talk a moderator into making the thread sticky...

I also downsize/resize the images larger than '472x...' or '...x595' separately from the 1150 version and place them in another directory so that they do not conflict.

well if you're going to make images that are the right size to begin with, then it doesn't *matter* if they scale properly ! that's really the best solution anyway, because it probably also reduces the weight of the finished file a bit... but, it's worth fixing the Publisher bug anyway, because there are probably people who don't know how to reformat the images, who would like to make ebooks, and they should be encourage .

[nrapallo]

This issue has been 'fixed' now in Mobi2IMP 9.2 so you can convert once and build twice without any image problems caused by the eBook Publisher's weak handling of image re-sizing.

Basically, the problem, as discovered by zelda_pinwheel, is that for images taller than wider, the aspect ratio is not being retained when ebook Publisher automatically re-sizes images larger than the device's usable dimensions.

Experimentation revealed that as long as the proper aspect ratio was used, any larger than screen images would NOT exhibit this re-sizing problem.

SOLUTION: Just pad horizontally with 'white' background enough to attain the proper aspect ratio and then re-save that new image. No images are altered, cropped or chopped, just padded evenly horizontally!