Hi,
I’m going to add image files (portraits) of some of the people in my database, but I couldn’t find any recommendations on ideal size and resolution for the images to be displayed as thumbnails (primary photos).
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
/perjol
Bear in mind that RootsMagic “downsamples” your full-resolution images to smaller “thumbnail” versions, stores those inside the database and uses them for representations within the program’s features (whether the originals are still on the machine or not). I’m pretty sure the max X and Y dimensions are 100 x 100 pixels, though the thumbnails (stored as type “blob”) can vary in blob size (likely depending on detail within original source images).
What’s most important is ideal sizing for if you were to print to a particular page format size or display to a particular screen format resolution (external to RootsMagic). So, the key is to ensure each image has enough pixel data to support the desired print/display size at its particular DPI (e.g., a 10-inch print at 300 DPI needs 3000 pixels in that X or Y direction). It’s a balance between filesizes and how often they’ll be utilized.
For Printing (Physical Copies):
Standard Quality (Good for most prints): 300 DPI.
High Detail/Large Prints/Archiving: 600 DPI or higher (e.g., 1200 DPI for small photos needing enlargement)
For On-Screen/Digital Use (high-res monitors vs. normalized web viewing), focus on pixel dimensions/higher pixel counts, not just DPI.
Higher resolution is better. Larger, higher-resolutions allow for more detail when zoomed.
Thank you for your answer.
I’m quite new to RootsMagic. What I find a bit challenging as a newbie is understanding the terminology/ categories regarding the use of media files.
Thumbnails:
These are shown for each person in the People pane (pedigree/family/descendants) and also in the upper right person corner, above the Life summary fields? It occurs to me that the thumbnail photos in upper right corner are “flexible” and gets expanded accordning to how many info lines are given (b:, m:, d:) I.e. deceased persons who where married mostly gets 3-6 lines and a larger thumbnail, whereas a child only get 1-2 lines (only b:) and a tiny thumbnail??
The View Image pane:
Shows an enlarged/strechted thumbnail in the upper right corner, while the “original picture” is shown in the original size in the large field on the left hand side??
If my presumptions above are correct, I understand that size and resolution are of less relevance. The thumbnail photo is integrated into the databse and is fitted/ adjusted according to the context, while the “orgininal picture” is linked and shown from the external file.
I added to my above reply that the thumbnails appear to be downsized to a proportion where the maximum of either X or Y (or both) does not exceed 100 pixels. You are correct about RM manipulaing them to varying dimension “internal” to the program features.
The only way the original source photo ever comes into play, other than View media item (View Image window opened by clicking magnifying glass icon) is external to RootsMagic. If you reserve a blank page(s) using the Book feature, you could insert in those places externally printed pages of image(s) in the flow of the document, for example.
@kbens0n (Kevin) gave you some excellent tips/points. I think your question in more a general one than specific to RM (other than possible thumbnail blob field size) – something I really did not think – I would think once you get to a certain point it would not increase the thumbnail size – but maybe that is not accurate
As far as portraits go – if disk space is not critical to you – having portraits of 3 to 12mb would seem to be reasonable. It might depend on your tree size – when you get to 20,000 people and if you have alot of higher quality images it might matter when processing books as well as for full backups – again this is something really not specific to RM.
Thank you both for comments and hints.
Please allow me a small additional question: does RM generate these thumbnails from all imported/ added photos, or just the photos marked as Primary photos?
This. Thumbnails remain in the database until deleted or until the filename block is changed to point to an image or file at a different filepath. Primary photo checkmarked is just a designation for the internal program places where it might be part of a report or function/feature (like displayed in the user interface).
I want to mention a slightly different point of view.
I have made it a habit to scan my photos at the highest resolution possible because I collect old photos and consider my collection a historical archive.
However, I am in the process of putting my “archives” online to share with all my cousins. I have learned from sad experience that many of my large image files will not show up in the software that I am using to display photos.
Out of curiosity, I asked AI to give advice about scanning and storing photos from the point of view of a historian and from the point of view of a web designer. AI went directly to the point: historians want the highest resolution to retain as much detail as possible; web designers want much smaller resolution so that the image will load quickly.
I am not sure how I will resolve this. But I am considering duplicating all my photos with one set in my “Historical Archives” and another set in my “Web Archives.
Best of luck with your project!
Some online services / website limit media storage so that might matter or it might cost you more – I have about 20 gb of media alone for example in my main tree