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Poll: Coin picture sizes for online display - which size is best?

The question springs out of the discussion about bidask's Panama Balboa - what is the ideal picture size (in pixels) for online display?

I realize that it is a personal aesthetic decision to a certain extent, but is there a "sweet spot"?

I initially was cropping to 1000x1000 pixels, which in retrospect was really too large in my opinion; in fact too large for some people's browser windows. I've now shifted to a more manageable 800x800, which I happen to like. You start going lower and you start to lose some of the character of the piece (although admittedly some of the perceived faults start to disappear as well).

Where is the balancing point between character/detail of a coin versus exhibiting flaws/detractions at a magnitude that is far greater than seen in hand? This is one of the reasons I decided to keep that 1851/5851 half farthing I got last week - I realized that the hits/nicks that seemed to jump off the picture simply are not visible in hand unless you whip out the loupe... after all the coin is roughly the size of a U.S. nickel.

I personally lean towards larger images when selling, because I think it's important to reveal as much information about a coin than to obfuscate. Better to underpromise and overdeliver.

The coin below is the obverse of one of bidask's pieces, an 1891-H North Borneo half cent. I just love the sheen.

Which image size do you like the best and why?

1. 400 pixels

image



2. 600 pixels

image




3. 800 pixels

image




4. 1000 pixels

image

Comments

  • rgCoinGuyrgCoinGuy Posts: 7,478
    I voted 1000 is too big, only because I don't like to have to scroll to see part of the coin. I am on a 22" monitor, but it doesn't fit without scrolling.

    I personally like the 800 pixel pics.

    Edited to add, I voted wrong, I voted based on the question in the title, not the question in the poll.
    imageQuid pro quo. Yes or no?
  • HussuloHussulo Posts: 2,953 ✭✭✭
    Personally I think I prefer the 600 pixels or even the 400 pixels.

    My first choice is the 600 pixels as I can still see the whole coin on my monitor without having to scroll the screen but it's large enough to see the coin and its details accurately. Any larger and I think it just looks to big. On the bigger pictures I find myself staring at minute details and not the coin or its overall design as a whole, plus they are less of a representation of the coin in hand.

  • ajaanajaan Posts: 17,075 ✭✭✭✭✭
    600 pixels, not too big, not too small.

    DPOTD-3
    'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'

    CU #3245 B.N.A. #428


    Don
  • WeissWeiss Posts: 9,935 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Good question. I do 700 for most images, 750 if I want to make a statement. Rarely anything larger than that.

    I believe that for most system defaults, you don't have to scroll to the right to see images smaller than 700. That means that in most online forums a size of 700 or less doesn't throw the whole thread out of alignment.

    Incidentally, I edit the resolution to 75 dpi, which was around the old 72 dpi standard for printing defaults and seems to work well in terms of faster downloads for the viewer and smaller storage capacity for my hard drive.
    We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
    --Severian the Lame
  • coinpicturescoinpictures Posts: 5,345 ✭✭✭


    << <i>Edited to add, I voted wrong, I voted based on the question in the title, not the question in the poll. >>



    Oops, sorry about that. Thread title edited... image
  • farthingfarthing Posts: 3,294 ✭✭✭
    I prefer 400 or 600, I voted for 600. I feel you get a better feel for the design aesthetic at these smaller sizes.

    At the larger size you "can't see the forest for the trees".
    R.I.P. Wayne, Brad
    Collecting:
    Conder tokens
    19th & 20th Century coins from Great Britain and the Realm
  • It's extra work, but the 600 accompanied by a link to the 1000 (or bigger) would be best IMO.
    image
  • I vote 600 for online display, but for my own study I'll save my pictures at closer to 1000.
  • SYRACUSIANSYRACUSIAN Posts: 6,445 ✭✭✭✭
    I like the 400 best,especially combined with the reverse in one rectangular image. It's still bigger than the actual coin. 600 seems a fit for crowns.
    Dimitri



    myEbay



    DPOTD 3
  • theboz11theboz11 Posts: 6,576 ✭✭✭
    Mine are all 550 pixels, so it fits well with my 600 vote. It is not too big for the screen and makes good viewing. Sometimes oversize distracts from the overall beauty of the piece.image

    And that N Borneo is awesomeimage
  • TwoKopeikiTwoKopeiki Posts: 9,528 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's a toss-up for me between 600 (which i picked) and 400.
  • WWWWWW Posts: 2,609 ✭✭✭
    I like the 600 with link to 1000.
  • coinpicturescoinpictures Posts: 5,345 ✭✭✭


    << <i>I like the 600 with link to 1000. >>



    A bit more of a pain, but doable certainly. A few downsides though:

    1. A lot of people don't like that effect on a message board or on eBay. Anything that takes a viewer away from the page potentially loses you viewership.

    2. There have been rumblings about eBay eventually eliminating or forbidding external links in any auction listings (parsing the text and stripping out any HTML link codes). No clue if it will actually happen, but I'd hate to build a storefront full of listings using that methodology only to find out I then had hours of work in front of me to edit listings.

  • WWWWWW Posts: 2,609 ✭✭✭
    Sorry, I don't see a problem with it at all.

    image

    http://www.pcgs.com/trueview/large/12574271.jpg
  • coinpicturescoinpictures Posts: 5,345 ✭✭✭
    Different aesthetics I guess. An 1100-pixel wide image like the one above is too intrusive for most purposes, in my opinion.
  • I voted 600 pixels, but for crown size pieces, I use 800 pixels.
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