It has come to my attention that this post is way smaller than the source to the point of being unreadable, but cannot be replaced with the original because it exceeds the height limits despite being only 5.3MB and about 20 megapixels. Which is a lot, but the site technically allows uploads as big as 15,000x15,000, over 200 megapixels. I could download the source and manually downscale it to 15,000 pixels high and it would still be an improvement, but I don't feel right about using the image replacement tool that way (and I'm not sure it would even be allowed).

So what I'm proposing is that, rather than a fixed cap on both height and width, tall comics like this should be allowed as long as they're within a reasonable megapixel count and file size. Wide images... I'm not so sure. Those are a lot more of a pain to scroll, and I can't imagine why anyone would ever make one that wide.

Small note that the "sample" generated by e621 only accounts for width, as well. So as long as the image is below 850 wide, it'll always be full resolution.

I would imagine a smarter system would get the MP calculated and then scale by percentage.
That would also entail either leaving existing generated images out, or regenerating the entire image sample database over some period of time. Or both concurrently, really.

Some finer details may include giving increased scaling weight to images with unbalanced ratios - square sample images may be given less MP than wide sample images for example.

There's also the issue that images with extreme aspect ratios are inherently really hard to create preview versions for. Either it'll still be too big for the screen or it'll be so small you can't tell what's going on. And thumbnails are just fucked.

But it's also kind of weird that a website that most people browse on devices with wide screens makes previews by capping the width, not the height.

errorist said:
There's also the issue that images with extreme aspect ratios are inherently really hard to create preview versions for. Either it'll still be too big for the screen or it'll be so small you can't tell what's going on. And thumbnails are just fucked.

yeah that's the eternal thumbnail dilemma

But it's also kind of weird that a website that most people browse on devices with wide screens makes previews by capping the width, not the height.

Most people don't browse on pc/laptop though, based on the ad figures