Applies to: PastPerfect Online add-on for Version 5.0
The PastPerfect Online Web Publishing Wizard creates copies of your images for the web. The program copies the images from Image Management that are selected to be included online. By default, any images attached to a record that is selected for the web will also be selected to display online. However, if you wish to not have a particular image online, you can deselect the image through the Metadata screen in Image Management.
The images for the web are resized to create a uniform website and to enable online visitors to view pages quickly. They are also considered “web quality” images, which means there is not a great amount of detail. These are all intentional design compromises.
For each image selected to be included online, the program creates two images for the web: a thumbnail and a large image. For the large image, you can select the size (in terms of pixel dimension) on the Create Web Files screen of the Web Publishing Wizard. You have a choice of creating the images at 450, 640, 950, or 1200 pixels across on the longest side. The default size is 950 pixels.
When PastPerfect is creating these web images, the original image resolution does not change, but the pixel dimensions are reduced to the selected size. Due to the smaller size of the image, the image will still be clear when viewing the image online; however, if web visitors try to save and enlarge the image, the image will become very pixilated. If an image in PastPerfect is smaller than the pixel size option selected, the image is just copied, not reduced.
The Web Publishing Wizard includes a text watermarking feature that you can choose to apply. The watermark is only applied to the web images and does not affect the images in Image Management. These watermarks are embedded within the web images. This means that the pixels where the watermark is located are actually replaced with the watermark, not just layered on top of the image. If you removed the watermark, there will be missing pixels, so the image will be incomplete.
If you apply watermarks to your images in PastPerfect, either before they are attached to PastPerfect records or through Image Management, you will want to be sure to NOT apply the watermark in the Web Publishing Wizard. Applying the PPO watermark on an image that is already watermarked in Image Management will result in two watermarks on the web image.
If you are concerned about web visitors being able to print online images, we recommend applying a watermark and creating the images at the 450 pixel size.