FA is re-compressing jpeg uploads after the Nov 2022 update.

[DragonTalon]

I was eager to try out the new file sizes and uploaded some larger versions, but was disappointed to find that FA is re-compressing my jpeg uploads.

Example - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/38015883/

It isn't resizing them, but is converting them down to q-level 90 and turning off sub-sampling resulting in a degraded image.

Is this intended or is it a bug? The file size was only 700k which is well under the limit and the example image linked below is sized to 2160x1440 which is also under the 3.7MP limit.

I'm hoping it's a bug because otherwise it's going to encourage people to upload PNGs with much higher storage costs to avoid the quality reduction.

( My guess is maybe the code that checks for re-sizing didn't get updated to the new resolution limit? )

 

[luffy]

I'll throw this into our chat about bugs, but please also create a Trouble Ticket. Thank you!

 

[DragonTalon]

Reported, thanks.

It's also reducing the quality of uploaded banner images in the same way.

 

[DragonTalon]

Update, this is happening with all file types. It is what is causing the GIF animation frames to be stripped.

It's also converting PNG images. The funny thing here is FA re-compressed a test PNG upload with less compression and just made the file BIGGER on their server.

At least it looks like everything is the result of a single bug. Just need to fix whatever conditional got broken and all will be well.

 

[RileyMannix]

I was eager to try out the new file sizes and uploaded some larger versions, but was disappointed to find that FA is re-compressing my jpeg uploads.

Example - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/38015883/

It isn't resizing them, but is converting them down to q-level 90 and turning off sub-sampling resulting in a degraded image.

Is this intended or is it a bug? The file size was only 700k which is well under the limit and the example image linked below is sized to 2160x1440 which is also under the 3.7MP limit.

I'm hoping it's a bug because otherwise it's going to encourage people to upload PNGs with much higher storage costs to avoid the quality reduction.

( My guess is maybe the code that checks for re-sizing didn't get updated to the new resolution limit? )


Is it fixed? I am also tired of it and I wish they resolve it soon. Do you have a lot of tasks due as a university student? You must complete those assignments, nevertheless, by the due date. In such an instance, I discovered the following website: https://studyclerk.com/annotated-bibliography-writing-service post. You can benefit from reading this material. Additionally, you may do your tasks more quickly. This article is the best source for you.

Is it fixed?

 

[harahito]

Is it fixed?

As far as I can tell? No, it hasn't been. I uploaded some sketches and my preferred brush for said sketches is the 'design pencil' in CSP which has a very particular look/texture. The way FA compresses them causes said texture to be lost and for it to appear grossly blurry.

I can understand wanting to save money since FA is back to being funded 'out of pocket' so to say but I'm curious just how much money is being saved if they're being so heavy-handed with the compression algorithm -- whatever it may be. No idea why they just didn't stick to a file size/resolution limit and then simply disallow gif uploads and just insist that all animated uploads must be webm (which are smaller, of higher quality than gifs and can also support audio) instead.

 

[DragonTalon]

As far as I can tell? No, it hasn't been. I uploaded some sketches and my preferred brush for said sketches is the 'design pencil' in CSP which has a very particular look/texture. The way FA compresses them causes said texture to be lost and for it to appear grossly blurry.

I can understand wanting to save money since FA is back to being funded 'out of pocket' so to say but I'm curious just how much money is being saved if they're being so heavy-handed with the compression algorithm -- whatever it may be. No idea why they just didn't stick to a file size/resolution limit and then simply disallow gif uploads and just insist that all animated uploads must be webm (which are smaller, of higher quality than gifs and can also support audio) instead.

I am assuming (hoping) the forced reformatting of all images is a bug, not a decision to save space.
It actually makes PNG file sizes *larger* so it's clearly not working either way.

 

[harahito]

I am assuming (hoping) the forced reformatting of all images is a bug, not a decision to save space.
It actually makes PNG file sizes *larger* so it's clearly not working either way.

... that is absurd. how very on brand tho'.

 

[GuffinDoesArt]

Hope that these reformatting bugs are fixed soon, images being needlessly tinkered with and possibly taking up more space than they should is a big issue, especially when server space is so limited that image resolution had to be cut.

 

[JendaLinda]

Any update on this? I observed this behavior as well and I've posted a ticket. FA is recompressing all images, degrading JPEG quality, breaking GIF animation and bloating PNG files.
Speaking of PNG, all PNGs are being converted to 32 bits. I was always using PNGOUT to compress my PNG files before uploading to FA. Most artworks will fit in 24 bits as they don't use transparency.
I'm still wating for the fix so I could replace the submission files with the PNGOUTed ones.

 

[JendaLinda]

To demonstrate, how poor PNG compression is on FA right now. I had a huge image in my gallery, so big that the thumbnail couldn't even generate - 6512 x 5926 pixels, 32 bits (with transparency). I reuploaded the image, so it complies with the new rules, the image got automatically downcaled to 3019 x 2747 pixels. So far so good.

Now let's have a look at the file size, original full res file: 2247494 Bytes, downscaled file: 2260910 Bytes. That's 13416 Bytes file size increase!

I can downscale the image myself and I will get a file of size just 1661889 Bytes. Pretty good, right? Now what will happen if I upload this file to FA? The image resolution and file size are just right, this should go through, right? Wrong! The file size is inflated to over 2 Megabytes again!

Anyway, this is not just ranting. I want to help. I want to be able to upload well compressed files. There's no need to do any changes to files that are already the right size.

 

[harahito]

To demonstrate, how poor PNG compression is on FA right now. I had a huge image in my gallery, so big that the thumbnail couldn't even generate - 6512 x 5926 pixels, 32 bits (with transparency). I reuploaded the image, so it complies with the new rules, the image got automatically downcaled to 3019 x 2747 pixels. So far so good.

Now let's have a look at the file size, original full res file: 2247494 Bytes, downscaled file: 2260910 Bytes. That's 13416 Bytes file size increase!

I can downscale the image myself and I will get a file of size just 1661889 Bytes. Pretty good, right? Now what will happen if I upload this file to FA? The image resolution and file size are just right, this should go through, right? Wrong! The file size is inflated to over 2 Megabytes again!

Anyway, this is not just ranting. I want to help. I want to be able to upload well compressed files. There's no need to do any changes to files that are already the right size.

it really is on brand for FA to introduce something and then end up having it be worse than the issue they were trying to solve.

 

[JendaLinda]

It's a real pity. Hundreds of poorly compressed images are now being saved to FA servers every day.

 

[JendaLinda]

The good thing about the new downscaler is that the limits are based on number of pixels in the picture (width*height) and not just on the longer side like it used to be. That's a good change as it's now respecting that artworks can be in different aspect ratios and orientations.

 

[DragonTalon]

UPDATE: This is now fixed, yay. JPEGs and PNGs and GIFs are all working as intended now.
While all the official communication says they fixed the GIF problem, it has also fixed the issues with ALL formats being reprocessed.
Boy, it sure is nice to have a forum link to check back on issues... once it moves to Discord I guess that's the end of having any idea what's going on anymore. Grumpy.

 

[redhusky]

UPDATE: This is now fixed, yay. JPEGs and PNGs and GIFs are all working as intended now.
While all the official communication says they fixed the GIF problem, it has also fixed the issues with ALL formats being reprocessed.
Boy, it sure is nice to have a forum link to check back on issues... once it moves to Discord I guess that's the end of having any idea what's going on anymore. Grumpy.

Yay for the fix! Boo for the potential upcoming downgrade in feedback and follow up options!

 

[JendaLinda]

Even animated PNGs are working again despite not being "officially" supported.

Agreed. Would be nice to have at least a section on Discord dedicated as an "issue tracker".

 

[JendaLinda]

The downclaer still has a serious problem. Downscaled images are very noisy. Have anybody else noticed the problem? I was wondering why the file size of flat colored PNGs increase so much after downscaling by FA, from half a megabyte to several megybtes. The whole areas of flat colors are filled with pixel noise after downscaling, like if there was some kind of dithering applied or something like that.

The noise is not visible by eye but it really hurts the PNG compression. The workaround is to downscale images manually before uploading to FA. Uploading files, that fit in the size limits, is working flawlessly.

 

[RestrainedRaptor]

The downclaer still has a serious problem. Downscaled images are very noisy. Have anybody else noticed the problem? I was wondering why the file size of flat colored PNGs increase so much after downscaling by FA, from half a megabyte to several megybtes. The whole areas of flat colors are filled with pixel noise after downscaling, like if there was some kind of dithering applied or something like that.

The noise is not visible by eye but it really hurts the PNG compression. The workaround is to downscale images manually before uploading to FA. Uploading files, that fit in the size limits, is working flawlessly.

Yep, that sounds like the optimizer trying to interpolate between two web-safe colours and making a mess of it.

It's amusing to see that the developer didn't even check to see if the result of the conversion was smaller than the original file, since storage costs were the reason why this change was made in the first place.

 

[JendaLinda]

It doesn't look like an attempt of color reduction as the resulting image still uses thousands of colors. JPEG is also affected, although JPEG compression will filter out most of the noise.

I guess I will downscale the images myself using Gimp or IrfanView.

 

[RestrainedRaptor]

Ouch. Maybe the developer needs to check the documentation for ImageMagick to make sure they're not doing silly things (I assume they're still using ImageMagick).

 

[JendaLinda]

Interesting, this issue was happening already before the November update. I've checked some older downscales and solid colors are filled with the same patterns. Everything was converted to JPEG by the downscaler though, so the problem was not that prominent.

 

[JendaLinda]

So it seems the downscaler was adding noise to pictures since forever. Only after it started using PNG as well, the problem has fully manifested.

If I try to save the same picture as JPEG in IrfanView, the flat color areas are mostly clean.

 

[RestrainedRaptor]

It would be helpful if a developer told us what tools were being used for these image conversions, and what parameters, so we can diagnose the issue faster.

 

[JendaLinda]

For the most kinds of content, it seems the noise will simply disapper in the JPEG compression. For the time being, I think it might be a good idea if the software was downscaling images only to JPEG like it used to. It would be a compromise before the proper solution is found.

Users would have to learn to downscale the images themselves before uploading, if they need transparency or better quality. After all, it's advised on the upload page as well.