[whatwg] Wish: Restrict Image Size on Upload

[Dan Brickley]

* Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> [2005-01-06 17:12+0000]
> On Mon, 27 Dec 2004, Jim Ley wrote:
> > On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 10:08:49 +0000 (UTC), Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:
> > > On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 what at keepthebyte.ch wrote:
> > > >
> > > > It would be useful to be able to define a bounding box of allowed 
> > > > picture width and height when uploading picture(s). The UA would 
> > > > need to check if the selected picture(s) is/are inside the allowed 
> > > > range (min - max width & height). With picture I generally mean the 
> > > > internet widespread formats (png, gif, jpg).
> > > 
> > > With the coming of high-resolution monitors, the pixel size of the 
> > > image will presumably become less important, as monitors will be 
> > > getting more pixels per centimeter.
> > 
> > I don't see this as a given fact at all, firstly pixels are always 
> > relevant, not least because all the HTML user agents have appallingly 
> > bad image resizing abilities.
> 
> This is a problem with the UAs, though, not with the specs.
> 
> 
> > Then there's the problem of small screen user agents, these obviously 
> > only sensibly need a raster of the size of the screen, there's no point 
> > having a "wallpaper" bigger than the screen.
> 
> I assume you are asserting that a use case for this feature is allowing 
> users to upload images of a specific size so that those images can then be 
> targetted at specific UAs for use as wallpapers?
> 
> If so, then it would seem to me that a better, more forward-looking design 
> for such a service would accept images of any size, the bigger the better, 
> and would then use high quality resampling to provide users with images of 
> the appropriate size for their device. Given the speed at which devices 
> evolve, this would be a much more long-term solution for such a service.

Just as an aside, the IETF AtomPub WG have been looking at something
similar, I guess with photo-blogging as the use case. Discussions in
last week, probably something nearby in wiki. One idea was specifying a
'SHOULD' for aspect ratio. 

[rummages...]

http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/atompub-charter.html
http://www.imc.org/atom-syntax/mail-archive/maillist.html
http://www.imc.org/atom-syntax/mail-archive/msg11878.html
-> http://www.intertwingly.net/wiki/pie/PaceEnclosuresAndPix

ah, http://www.imc.org/atom-syntax/mail-archive/msg11892.html
[[
> > But, since they are of varying sizes, they tend to be tucked away in
> > the UI rather than displayed prominently. Were there a standard size,
> > then a GUI app could do something like how iTunes displays album cover
> > art. 
> Hmm... sounds like it does no harm. Think we could get away something
> like "The aspect ratio of the image SHOULD be 3:2 and software MAY
> resize it as desired."? -Tim
]]

You might find it worthwhile keeping an eye on that discussion...

Dan