On Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 7:36 AM, Ariel T. Glenn <ariel(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
So there are some things we could change:
1. We could generate and keep only certain sizes, tossing the rest.
Heck yes. Generate some standard sizes at upload time and let the browser
scale if a funny size is demanded. Modern browsers scale photos nicely, not
like the nearest-neighbor ugliness from 2002.
This'll simplify our thumbnail-serving architecture, remove some DoS
vectors, and if we pick the next size up makes things look better when
zooming or on high-density screens.
Downside: diagrams and charts done as PNGs or JPGs might not look as sharp
at non-standard sizes.
We should also start considering serving SVGs directly to supporting
browsers, so they always look nice at any size -- and at any zoom level.
(Downside of this: this means we have to start thinking about size and
rendering efficiency in SVGs -- don't use a 6 megabyte super-detailed map
for something that's going to be shown at 200px most of the time!)
-- brion