Re: Retargeted images redux: how it might actually be used on the web

On 28 Mar 2008, at 14:09, David Hyatt wrote:
> I think this is a neat idea.  It does seem to me like only one CSS  
> property would be necessary though.  Really isn't this just about  
> picking a scaling algorithm for an image, e.g.,
>
> image-scale-algorithm: seam-carving;
>
> ?
>
> WebKit actually already supports two scaling modes (although the  
> ability to use the low quality interpolation mode is not exposed to  
> CSS but is instead WebKit API).
>
> Limiting the scope of the seam carving could just involve actually  
> clamping the size of the object where the image is used, e.g., with  
> normal max-width/min-width properties.

Brad Kemper made a similar comment and I'm inclined to agree;  
sticking to existing conventions and not overcomplicating the syntax  
seems like a good way of approaching it. The only possible caveat I'd  
add is that you may only wish to use this scaling algorithm in a  
single dimension (particularly as the algorithm itself doesn't work  
so well on certain types of image). Using max/min-height/width would  
be the sensible way of limiting how much the method is used to scale  
the source image, though, so maybe just those would work; but it  
would feel a bit clumsy having to specify identical values for max  
and min in a given dimension for this purpose.

> One issue with adding properties that affect images is that you run  
> into the problem of wanting to do the same thing with images  
> specified in CSS, such as background images, list images and border  
> images.

Definitely. I was wondering about this myself, and it may well be the  
case that this method would be more useful for background images than  
inline image elements (in my own work I am far more interested in  
flexible scaling of background images to complement UI chrome). I'll  
defer to smarter people on how best to handle this! :)

> Is this algorithm unencumbered and freely implementable?

The technique was originally submitted as a paper to SIGGRAPH  
(available online at http://www.seamcarving.com/arik/imret.pdf).  
There isn't much in the way of legal information concerning who owns  
the technique, but the tone of the paper suggests the authors were  
hoping to see it widely implemented.

~B

Received on Friday, 28 March 2008 19:36:40 UTC