Sharpening and scaling for web usage; watermarking

[lutz]

There is a very interesting tutorial on sharpening and resizing for web usage available here: MANYK's WEB SHARPENING ACTION
http://news.deviantart.com/article/20250/

Manyk's idea is to apply some extra larger radius sharpening to the original before resizing and additional iterative sharpening passes with minimal values after the resizing. Furthermore, the sharpening effects are restricted to the midtones to a a varying degree. This procedure seems to compensate for the quality loss caused by the resizing quite well.
The action discussed in the deviantart post is attached below ("translated" for PhotoLine). I use it for batch conversions (it scales to a width of 600 px by default, but this is easily adjustable) .

The attachment also has a second extended version of the script with the ability to add watermarks or signatures.
To be able to use this second action, one has to prepare a watermark image ( e.g. 500x500 px with a white text of 40-50 % transparency and a fully transparent background; flattened). Important, this watermark image needs to be loaded and copied to the clipboard as the very last "copy" procedure before starting the action.

One example: top - normal scaling (Lanczos); bottom - the PrepForWebWatermark action ( looks like my monitor needs calibration ):

[greenmorpher]

Hiya LUTZ

You certainly demonstrate a result there. I've downloaded the script and I'll give it a run through some time in the near future. Many thanks for posting it.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com

[lutz]

Hi Geoff,
did you recover from the holiday celebrations?

I really like Manyk's concept of doing multiple sharpening passes at low levels, not only for the application in a script like above. I have tested it on multiple pics and I believe the results are better than with regular USM sharpening.

[greenmorpher]

Hi Geoff,
did you recover from the holiday celebrations?

Hi Lutz

I was in one of the poorest countries in the world, Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor). Amazing stuff. Then I drove from north to south in Australia, Darwin > Melbourne, about 4000 km. Also amazing. In the course of that, I twisted my knee which is now swollen to twice its normal size, I had to buy three ice packs at vast expense, I am sucking down painkillers like they are lollies, and I'm getting around on crutches! Bloody frustrating! Off to see the physiotherapist again in an hour or so.

I really like Manyk's concept of doing multiple sharpening passes at low levels, not only for the application in a script like above. I have tested it on multiple pics and I believe the results are better than with regular USM sharpening.

I was thinking along the same lines. Yet I am puzzled. It actually doesn't make huge intuitive sense to me. If it works, though, it works.

By the way, I have put a pointer to your post on the Wizaerd's Canvas forum. There are some people there who would be interested, I think.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com

[lutz]

Hello Geoff,
Wow, real adventures all around with existentialistic moments included.
I bet you can show us some photos at one point.

Get well and get you knee fixed properly. I once had myself a lot of problems with my knee ( before MRIs were available for diagnosis). In my case, a physiotherapeut got the diagnosis right after I had already two unsuccesful athroscopic surgeries. My knee is holding up well now, after the third surgery and very good treatment by the physiotherapeut.

Lutz