How caption makes an image worse
-
Do you know, when you make a caption for an image, this caption make the image a little worse; and this “a little” is enough to make this image really bad?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
-
-
I need not help, thank you. Your web designer needs help to make caption without changing the size of images.
-
By itself, a caption doesn’t necessarily change the size of an image, and doesn’t make the image “a little worse”. All images become slightly worse when uploaded to your blog, because they get slightly compressed, and the difference becomes noticeable when the images are downsized. So the important factor isn’t the caption, it’s the size of the original in relation to the size of the displayed version.
For example:
The width of the main column in the theme you’re using is 780px. The originals you have inserted in your latest posts are 700px wide, displayed in full size. If you add a caption to them, there will be absolutely no difference in quality, because the images are narrower than the main column, so there’s room enough for the extra frame around the image: captioned and non-captioned version will be identical (good quality). If you upload 700px wide originals but insert them at, say, 350px, captioned and non-captioned version will again be identical (poorer quality). If you insert 780px wide originals in full size, then adding a caption will make a difference: the non-captioned version will be displayed in its original size but the captioned version will be slightly downsized to make room for the frame, so it will have slightly poorer quality. -
Thank you very much, but I never upload to the server images more then 700px width or 500px (if it vertical).
-
So, as I said, adding a caption to them should make no difference (as long as you’re using Garland – or any theme with a main column that’s wider than 700px).
-
So, specially for you I displaed two images (woman with Stalin 500×664) – one with caption, anouther without – here http://victortravelblog.com/2013/02/18/russian-winter-russian-cuisine-russian-bath/
Compare the sharpeness of the faces! Did you see the difference? -
-
How strange. I can confirm that the images are the same size, but the one with the caption is worse. Here is an expanded screen shot, with the captioned version on the left just to prove the point
-
My guess is that WordPress erroneously applies the scaling algorithm when there is a caption even if the size is correct.
-
-
The difference is visible even to the naked eye, is not it?
yes it is, for me I only notice it when I look carefully at the images, but I know that my eyesight is not very good. I would imagine that someone with 20/20 vision would be able to see it immediately.
-
In other words, caption spoils the image.
I wonder whether the programmers of WordPress will hear it? -
I’m flagging this for staff attention, as this is clearly something that should not happen.
-
@tandava108: No, the two versions aren’t exactly same size.
@tribunsky: Yes, the non-captioned version is sharper.
Counterexample, where this isn’t happening:
http://panosdemos.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/caption-no-caption-journalist/I checked the CSS of the two themes, and I can tell you what’s wrong. The CSS of Garland imposes a 98% max-width for captioned images no matter what their actual width, so even if an image is narrow enough it still gets downsized a bit (the captioned version in your example is 499px instead of 500px), so it loses quality. Since you have the Custom Design upgrade you can easily correct this. Paste this in the CSS editor:
.wp-caption img { max-width: 100%; } -
Thanks justpi for discovering this. I will leave the flag for staff attention because it is something that the theme developers should look at.
-
Thank you, justpi. I have done it.
But what to do all the people who have not Custom Design? -
-
You’re welcome.
As for “all the people”, well, some users don’t insert images, some users don’t insert captioned images, and many users don’t have your sharp eye and/or your interest in image quality; those who do can switch to a different theme, or hope that WP will fix this.
- The topic ‘How caption makes an image worse’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 
