New image-zoom tool | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

New image-zoom tool

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Submitted by David on Sun, 2009-05-03 17:04

[Update, 5 Oct 2009: We've changed again, details below.]

We're trying out a new tool to help make it easier to view old photos and newspaper clippings. If you move your mouse over the image below, you should see a magnified copy shown above. Currently it only works on images that are uploaded to this site, not images linked to on other sites such as Flickr. I'll be interested to hear if you have any problems using it, and whether you find it useful or not.

Cameron Mansion

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Submitted by Sophia on Sun, 2009-05-03 17:22.

Mr B,

Thank you. The tool seems to work very well on photographs. I tried it on random news clippings with mixed results. The article on Pam Am Clippers can be zoomed quite well but not so much on the Fourseas hotel brochure.

Submitted by Admin on Sun, 2009-05-03 17:30.

Sophia, good point. I should have pointed out the zoom tool just shows a section of the image as it was uploaded. If the uploaded image is low resolution, the zoom tool won't help.

Or the technical details: Above we're looking at the 'preview' version of the image, which is 510 pixels wide. The original uploaded image was 1280 pixels wide, so the zoom tool can show you more detail. If the original uploaded image had only been 510 pixels wide, the zoom view wouldn't show you anything extra, it would look just the same as the 'preview' version.

Submitted by Vinnie (not verified) on Sun, 2009-05-03 19:30.

It seems that the zoom image is cropped at the top for some photos.  I think it's because the original photo is closer to the top of the webpage.  If you have only the header, link, title, time stamp above the original photo, then the zoom image gets cropped.  If you have these items plus text above the photo, then the zoom image is farther down on the page so you see all of it.  Perhaps a simple solution would be to put the 'Move your mouse over image to zoom in' text above the original photo (plus maybe a blank line) to push the original photo down and give the zoom image more room.  

Do we, as readers, need to upgrade to the full version of the tool?  If yes, how?

Neat tool.  :)

Submitted by Admin on Sun, 2009-05-03 21:14.

Thanks Vinnie, I'd forgotten there's not so much space at the top when you're logged out. I've shrunk the zoom window's height, so it should all show up now.

The 'upgrade to full version' message is aimed at batgung. If it works ok, we need to buy a licence.

Another couple of problems I've noticed:

  • In IE7, the zoom window is hidden under the banner image
  • It's no longer possible to clikc on the image and be taken to its main page

So, still a work in progress...

Submitted by Admin on Thu, 2009-05-07 10:59.

The zoom window should now display correctly in Internet Explorer as well, but let me know if you spot any other problems.

Submitted by Vinnie (not verified) on Sat, 2009-05-09 07:03.

Cool!  By fixing for IE7, you've fixed it for IE8.  No problems found with Firefox or Google Chrome, btw.  Thanks!

Submitted by Admin on Sun, 2009-05-10 21:41.

Vinnie, thanks for testing & reporting back, much appreciated!

MrB

Submitted by David on Tue, 2009-10-06 13:22.

I've been looking into different tools for zooming / magnifying images, and have switched us from using Magic Zoom to a product called Zoomify. Here's a good image to try it out with.

Note that if the original image is a small one, it's not possible to zoom in, so for those images the zoomify viewer won't display.

Here are the advantages that I see:

  • Faster: Magic zoom downloads the full original-size image every time you view the page, which takes a long time for people connecting over slow internet links. Zoomify works like Google Maps - it only downloads the part of the image you are viewing.
  • More flexible: Magic zoom has a fixed magnification. Zoomify lets you select, which will be important as we show higher-resolution images.
  • Better integration with the software that runs the website: It sets the foundations for some further changes that are in the pipeline.

As always, please let me know if you have any feedback, or find any problems when using it.

Regards, David