The rules are unclear to me if there's a maximum size for a Cover Scan contribution.  Should I be limiting them to 300Kb, or so?  Or can I submit a monster-size file in the interest of clarity?  My guess is that it might be reduced in size before being released, anyway, but it would still remain somewhat clear.

Mike

The maximum file size is 200,000 bytes.  If you submit something larger than that, it will be automatically compressed and downsized when submitted.  And, while this automated compression is done fairly well, it is not as good as many, more powerful tools you may use on your own PC.

Also, even if a file is the right size, when you import it into DVDP, it gets modified by the application.  So, if you want to have complete control over image compression and quality, you need to save it directly into the images directory, named appropriately.  Then, the application will use the new image, as you saved it.  And when you upload, it will be exactly as you saved it, too.  Unless it is over 500 wide, 700 tall, or 200,000 bytes.  (mind you, that's 200,000 bytes and NOT 200Kb.)

Nope.  They can definately be over 195,000.  I've had some that were higher and were uncompressed by the upload.  For instance, 669198094194.  The front cover image is 199,971 bytes.

The really odd thing is that I have one image in my images folder, which was pulled from the online, which is 343,307 bytes!  How'd that happen?  Sku for that is 631595050226, in case anybody wants to look.  The back cover is the large one.  Weird.

Also, for the record, 200Kb is actually 204,800 bytes. 

The limit is 200,000 bytes, not 200k or 204,800 bytes.  Any image over this 200,000 byte limit is recompressed.  (It's also 195.3k and Windows will either say 195k or 196k - Vista can say both at the same time!)

If you want to optimize your contributed cover, resize it to no greater than 500 pixels wide and 700 pixels high and 195k.  Save it at the highest quality JPeg setting and take a look at the resulting file size.  If it's above 195k, drop down the quality a notch and repeat until it is below 195k.  If it is exactly 195k, view the properties of the file to see the byte count.

You can adjust the compression ratio in the cover editor - but this isn't the same compression that happens when you upload a scan.  That happens on Invelos's server.  So if you scan in a very large cover and paste it into DVDP, it gets compressed on saving - and you can adjust it to use the best possible quality compression which will result in a very large file.  Then if you submit the cover scan, it gets recompressed again to bring it down to within the 500x700x195k thresholds.

Quoting Katatonia:

Quote:
I've recently seem some old covers in the database that measured 500 x 721 and 500 x 743, so 700 tall must not always be the absolute.

Yep, that one I mentioned above (UPC 631595050226) is actually 772 x 1825 and 343,307 bytes!  I'm not sure how such a large image snuck through, but there's no denying that it's there!  Weird.