Uploaded PNG images are converted into JPEG now.
 

Is the forced image conversion from PNG into JPEG a new feature or a bug?


Some details are getting lost and JPEG artefacts are added. Not good if you want to explain or demonstrate small differences between two screenshots pixel by pixel.

I uploaded a PNG screenshot and clicked on "Preview Post". Then on the attached PNG and it looks good. If there is a bug that converts PNG to JPG then it should be fixed. Investigation needed. :)

Today I noticed that it depends on the size of the uploaded image file. If a PNG is greater than 488.3 kB than it's converted into a JPEG and the extension changes, too. Don't know if that limit has already existed on the old server. I think that the free upload volume should be the only restriction. Maybe a requester could ask the user whether he wants to convert his images into the smaller JPEG format. If not, then the users sometimes has to cleanup his uploads. ;)

Thread moved out of the "Off Topic" section where RCK will see it.

Thanks DamienD !

Not a proper solution, but before uploading PNGs you could try reducing file size by using a lossless recompressor/optimiser like PNGOUT. You'd be less likely to hit the 500,000-bytes limit then.

Thanks Mark,
usually I'm already using the highest PNG comression rate = 9 in IrfanView, but I just saw that it has also support for a PNGOUT plugin, although I won't expect more than a few percent size reduction. The PNGOUT plugin is only as a 32 bit version available, but I'm using IrfanView 64.

Sometimes you'd be surprised how much an improvement you can get, especially for images that have a limited palette.

With PNGGauntlet (PNGOUT included and updated) it takes very long to optimize some screenshots from WinUAE: 3-4.5 minutes. Ok, the size reduction looks quite good, up to 30 % less, but I can get 22-25 % already with IrfanView in less than a second, and then PNGOUT would only give me another 3.5-4.5 % better compression. I would do that only if size is a very important factor.

Yep, this behavious was already here :)
I have raised up the size limit to 1MB for jpg / gif / png instead of 500k

Thanks ;)

Why is the conversion necessary? :sad

Maybe I never noticed this limit before, because in most cases I'm cutting out and uploading only the important parts of a screenshot.

Thank you RCK, now it's 100 % better than before!:great

Btw, with IE11 I still get these doubled line feeds in the editor, and I cannot click on smilies to insert them into the text. Only drag&drop works.

IMHO automatic format conversion is not good. If the image size is to large then a message should inform the user about it like it is done with other filetypes.

Me too and with PMs :crying

Nice little tool! I compressed ~100 screenshots (320x256) in less than 30 secs and got much better results than the old method I used. Thanks :great

Hmm, I guess your optimizations are so much faster, because your small images will fit completely into the CPU cache unlike my 1280x800 screenshots. I have only a slow Mini-PC with 2x1MB cache.

I tried compress 34 files in 1280x800 and it took longer (2 mins, 6 secs). I will use it mostly for 320x256 images, so no problem for me.

RCK should consider using PNGOUT for HOL. I did some tests and the size can be reduced 20%-40%.

Well, I see, your PC must be about 50 times faster than mine. :scream :D

Sorry dudes, but you will have to find me a Virtual Machine with a version of IE11 with the problem because I can't debug it if I can't reproduce it :crying