FAQ File size for forum upload (moved from photography thread)

[Pete Thomas]

Forum tech support question?

No

Details

N/A

Unedited, apart from being shrunk in size to meet the site size limits.

There are no size limits for upload so that is unnecessary. Or do you mean the automatic forum resizing and webp conversion?

 

[jonf]

There are no size limits for upload so that is unnecessary. Or do you mean the automatic forum resizing and webp conversion?

Oh, I thought there was a 15mb limit. I have recently had error messages saying I can't upload the image as it's too big. There was one which I thought I had shrunk, but it was 33mb and when I tried to upload it, I got a message saying it was too big.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Oh, I thought there was a 15mb limit.

I don’t think there is anything in the forum settings, I’ll need to check because there shouldn’t be as the forum will automatically convert to webp and bring down to something that is reasonable on a website anyway (basically to not get penalised by Google and/or annoy people with slow connections).

EDIT: just checked and there is a server limit of 20MB - so yes, your 33MB image would need to be reduced in file size (but not pixel dimensions). I wonder if there is a reason for anyone to need to upload an image that large?

 

[PigSquealer]

EDIT: just checked and there is a server limit of 20MB. I wonder if there is a reason for anyone to need to upload an image that large?

That’s just nuts !
I can email a boatload of pictures with a total under 4 .2 MB.
20MB is like a terrorist threat. Don’t bite !!!!

 

[lig]

Hehe…. @jonf and I have cameras that produce single 102mb RAW files. 😀

Ironically my favorite photo forum has a stupid low file size limit - something along the lines of 1.5mb. It’s actually a deterrent to sharing pics there because I’m too lazy to resize my images so aggressively.

 

[ghostler]

just checked and there is a server limit of 20MB. I wonder if there is a reason for anyone to need to upload an image that large?

I can email a boatload of pictures with a total under 4 .2 MB.

I found that if I use a photo editor and reduce pixel width to 800 is sufficient detail for forum viewing plus drops the file size down to under a half meg, usually half of that or less if height is less than 800 pixels. Plus by cropping out unimportant background will enlarge content sufficiently so it is detailed enough at 800 pixels or less.

 

[PigSquealer]

I found that if I use a photo editor and reduce pixel width to 800 is sufficient detail for forum viewing plus drops the file size down to under a half meg, usually half of that or less if height is less than 800 pixels. Plus by cropping out unimportant background will enlarge content sufficiently so it is detailed enough at 800 pixels or less.

Between Ma Squealer’s business needs and my corporate needs, then add saxophone hobby fun. I have a 3TB cloud account set up.
Emails, I have multiple accounts. Rarely do any ask about data size. 1GB or smaller. My graphics arts company sends remedial proofs at 28-30 GB. A 40 page full color publication.
Two weeks ago we experienced a minor China Syndrome.
We’ve had multiple technicians here. New feed box/ fiber optic cable from pole. New battery backup system installed. Several new router boxes. All with new cables. Heat / fire being a major concern.
Two techs working by cell phones miles away. One here at house, the other at a network box (roadside) miles away.

 

[Pete Thomas]

I found that if I use a photo editor and reduce pixel width to 800 is sufficient detail for forum viewing plus drops the file size down to under a half meg, usually half of that or less if height is less than 800 pixels.

There’s no need to resize the pixel dimensions as the upload conversion takes care of that.

 

[jonf]

I wonder if there is a reason for anyone to need to upload an image that large?

None whatsoever, it's just the original files that are large, and they need shrinking to upload. But the resultant file of about 10mb is more than detailed enough for web viewing.

 

[jonf]

There’s no need to resize the dimensions as the upload conversion takes care of that and may even give better results and smaller file size in MB.

That wasn't my experience, I got an error message saying the file couldn't be uploaded as it was too big. No big deal, it is a very quick and easy process to shrink the file.

 

[Pete Thomas]

There’s no need to resize the dimensions as the upload conversion takes care of that and may even give better results and smaller file size in MB.

That wasn't my experience, I got an error message saying the file couldn't be uploaded as it was too big.

Yes that is possible if over 20MB but what I meant was no need to adjust the pixel dimensions. The forum upload converter will do that, it resizes to 1500px which I believe is big enough for forum viewing. Obviously it will display smaller if the browser width is smaller.

Any raw photo files >20MB you can convert to jpg (100%) or png but there should in that case be no need to reduce pixel dimensions as the result should be <20MB.

I’d love to allow bigger but we have to keep an eye on server disk storage and page load time.

 

[ghostler]

There’s no need to resize the pixel dimensions as the upload conversion takes care of that.

It has become a habit of mine as other forums outside Café have limitations on photo uploads.

I’d love to allow bigger but we have to keep an eye on server disk storage and page load time.

When I want to display a photo I uploaded in another post (or someone uploaded in another post,) I will right click on it and open it in a separate window. Then enclose the photo's URL using the BB Code IMG tags. This displays it in the same manner but avoids a secondary duplicated upload.

 

[Pete Thomas]

When I want to display a photo I uploaded in another post (or someone uploaded in another post,) I will right click on it and open it in a separate window. Then enclose the photo's URL using the BB Code IMG tags. This displays it in the same manner but avoids a secondary duplicated upload.

Thanks this is a very good thing to do so we dont waste disk space.

NB: for those who aren't familar with BBCODE, you don't need to be. You can just do this by clicking on the image insert icon in the text editor and choosing the insert by URL option (the link icon tab). This automatically takes care of the BBCODE behind the scenes for you.