Challenge

Started by Spectrum January 2nd, 2006 5:00 PM
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  • 38 replies

Spectrum

In need of an oil change

Age 31
Male
Australia
Seen December 8th, 2021
Posted August 2nd, 2019
7,400 posts
18.8 Years
I'm sick of how overrated PNG has become - it's cramming signatures around PC needlessly with 200-300 KB signatures, when they could be saved as JPGs with barely (if at all) visible quality loss. So I present to you a challenge.

One of these banners is a 54 KB JPG. The other is an 86 KB PNG. Can you tell me which is which without cheating?



Seen December 14th, 2013
Posted April 6th, 2011
3,196 posts
18.7 Years
First is png, the second is jpg. See, with a sig like that, you can't tell much of a difference in them. However, when you get a sig that has crucial color quality with far more contrast than this one, it really does matter.

EDIT: Let's try a challenge of mine where you actually can tell the difference, shall we?





Now, let's take a look at the first one. It is a jpeg. On the dragon's wing, do you notice tiny little bits that aren't there in the png? They weren't there in Photoshop, either. There is a difference, my friend.

Sammi

Age 33
she/her
The States
Seen 5 Days Ago
Posted November 8th, 2021
14,085 posts
18.3 Years
But you have to remember that some people don't use Photoshop, or a program that can easily make a JPG or a GIF look like a PNG. And if they do use Photoshop, they might not like doing it.

Sawyer: Surely you can do a high-quality GIF or JPG and get the same results. Even high-quality GIF/JPG are smaller than PNG most of the time, I do believe. ._.; *goes to play with it*
I just tried it (highest GIF and JPEG), and even at the lowest setting in PNG, it was the largest. They all looked the same to me. >> And for your test, it's not THAT bad of a diffrence. I can barely tell.

I think you should try to be considerate to people with dial-up. Not everyone has broadband.
Personally, these days, I don't do PNG because of that. I try to make them look good and make them small. The last time I saved PNG, it was spriting. ._.;

On topic, I couldn't tell the diffrence. ;D

I'll make a proper signature when Pokecommunity gets a proper slogan
Seen December 14th, 2013
Posted April 6th, 2011
3,196 posts
18.7 Years
Oh, well excuse me for being able to tell the difference ;-; I am a member at a whole bunch of art sites; they will be critical of those tiny little things, so I'm just speaking with the knowledge I have. Sorry. I'm just saying that I will continue to use .PNG for my own reasons, I can't be forced to listen to you, Ty.
EDIT: btw, I've been using .PNG since the first request thread I made; it hasn't seemed to be a problem until now.

Sammi

Age 33
she/her
The States
Seen 5 Days Ago
Posted November 8th, 2021
14,085 posts
18.3 Years
That's why I don't post in G/P very much, I don't have an eye for the little details in banner/avatar making, hense why all of my banners suck XP

But surely for sigs here, you don't need to have everything exact. You can probably risk cutting out the little details and save the dial-up users some time.

I'll make a proper signature when Pokecommunity gets a proper slogan

Sammi

Age 33
she/her
The States
Seen 5 Days Ago
Posted November 8th, 2021
14,085 posts
18.3 Years
I know it is troublesome, but surely you could take the time to do it :/ I mean, it's kinda like common courtesy. That's my point.
Either that, or you could have someone else do it. ._.;

True, there isn't much diffrence there, but you could probably cut it down some more. A good gif is much smaller than both of them, and it looks great to me.

I'll make a proper signature when Pokecommunity gets a proper slogan

Spectrum

In need of an oil change

Age 31
Male
Australia
Seen December 8th, 2021
Posted August 2nd, 2019
7,400 posts
18.8 Years
Oh, well excuse me for being able to tell the difference ;-; I am a member at a whole bunch of art sites; they will be critical of those tiny little things, so I'm just speaking with the knowledge I have. Sorry. I'm just saying that I will continue to use .PNG for my own reasons, I can't be forced to listen to you, Ty.
I'm not trying to force anybody. A small 340x100 banner is fine; a full-sized 500x300 banner is another story. And I'm seeing a lot of banners like that come around lately, it's horridly annoying waiting for that stuff to load.

But I was trying to make another point here too - you can only notice the difference if you look really carefully. People who criticise you for something that isn't even worth noticing have way too much time on their hands. =\

EDIT: btw, I've been using .PNG since the first request thread I made; it hasn't seemed to be a problem until now.
I looked at your request thread once. Haven't gone in there since. It took far too long to load. Again, your banner is fine, but the size of banners that people request in there in PNG format is just overkill.
Seen December 14th, 2013
Posted April 6th, 2011
3,196 posts
18.7 Years
Of course... 500x300 banners are way oversized for a banner, especially a .png banner. Besides, the people making those 500x300 sized banners don't have enough detail in their banners that you could hardly tell the difference anyway. I'm saying, most actual graphic designers don't go much over 400x100, that's just pushing it. In my first banner thread, 400x100 was the default size, in my new thread, 380x85 was the default size, now I don't have a request thread, but I almost always make my banners 340x100. I mean, for a banner with so little detail in it, why have such a huge size? It's a waste of space. If someone who has a banner sized 450x150, for example, that has only an anime image, not a render, no, it's just the image with its actual background... how big does that sig need to be to see those details?

Spectrum

In need of an oil change

Age 31
Male
Australia
Seen December 8th, 2021
Posted August 2nd, 2019
7,400 posts
18.8 Years
You people just need broadband. =/
I want broadband. My mother keeps saying she'll get it, and never does. When I mention it to her, she ignores me.

My banners are 400x150, that's about the biggest and the smallest I'm willing to make them. But I agree with the rest of what you said; I hate how big people make their banners. x_x Still, it could be an edgy impulse - they think their signatures will be just perfect if they're right on the limit.
Age 62
Male
Melbourne, Australia
Seen April 26th, 2018
Posted June 9th, 2014
11,439 posts
19.7 Years
It's fairly obvious which is which... the one that's already preloaded into the cache from a previous thread in which you posted (in your sig) is the JPG. :P I completely agree with you, though; I'm very much against huge filesizes. Many people don't know how to compress a PNG image properly, either. For a sig you don't need the best quality in the world.


"One reason why mathematics enjoys special esteem, above all other sciences, is that its laws are absolutely certain and indisputable, while those of other sciences are to some extent debatable and in constant danger of being overthrown by newly discovered facts."
Albert Einstein

"What science can there be more noble, more excellent, more useful for men, more admirably high and demonstrative than mathematics."
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Kyosuke

.·Simple Complexity

Age 34
Pickering, On
Seen August 8th, 2018
Posted May 17th, 2014
2,485 posts
19.7 Years
I know what you mean about the large file sizes, even my own avatars and such are basically all saved as PNG, but not as big as the 200-300 files sizes ^^'. But you have to realize that some programs just flat out suck when it comes to proper compression of JPG's and when working with banners or whatever, the quality sometimes goes down dramatically. So PNG is sometimes what files need to be saved as, in order to keep some pictures looking "acceptable".

I'm sure you have a program that converts anything into a JPG format looking just as nice as a PNG, with a much smaller file size, but I'm just saying some programs are just terrible at it.
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Kyosuke

.·Simple Complexity

Age 34
Pickering, On
Seen August 8th, 2018
Posted May 17th, 2014
2,485 posts
19.7 Years
That's true. However, if a filesize limit were introduced, I (as mentioned above) would gladly help people meet the limits, as I'm sure others would also.
There was a file size limit in the past, but many people just found ways to bypass it with different types of tags in their signature.

But thats not saying, there will never be a limit in the future again, if things get a little more hectic then they are at times, with certain people and the amount amount of pictures they have in their sig..
"Life isn't perfect, but sometimes you have to make the best of it."

After 7 years, Xbox Live is Still Amazing

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