[whatwg] Suggested changes to Web Forms 2.0, 2004-07-01 working

[Chris Kaminski]

> Firstly, it's a very unlikely use case. Actually, I can't 
> even think of
> *any* case where you'd want to upload three image files in 
> three different and specific formats. (Even if they were the 
> same picture, why not just upload the single most faithful 
> format and get the server to produce the others? That'd be 
> quicker, more accessible, and produce more reliable results 
> than making users do their own conversions.)

Unless the user is a web dev/designer at an agency and the photo in question
is used in both a web and print campaigns. At my current job, we often have
3 versions of the same image: hi-res, uncompressed TIF, low-res compressed
GIF/JPEG, print-ready PDF and occasionally a PDF with compression used to
present online comps. As the designers *never* compress the images
themselves, and the devs (almost) never prepare print versions, having all
three in a web-based extranet might make sense, and generating them
'automagically' on the server just isn't an option (resizing, sharpening,
color-correcting and compressing large, important images is not something a
computer can do even half so well as a human being).

I'll grant it isn't a common case, but I do see it from time to time, and
I've wasted enough time chasing down design/ad/media agency employees to get
imagery in a usable format that I can absolutely see wanting to require
specific formats for specific uses (PDF for print, TIF or PSD for source
file, etc.).


ck