The Need for a Responsive Web Image Format

Images made the first web boom.

If it wasn’t for IMG, a once non-standard bit of HTML proposed by Marc Andresson and put into the relic Mosiac browser, we probably would still be buying encyclopedias on CD-ROMS today.

In that initial proposal, Andresson cited Xbm and Xpm as image formats worth supporting.

Thankfully, browsers have adopted more robust image file formats since then.

Many formats have indeed come and gone, but there are a few we really deal with most of the time: PNG, GIF and JPEG. 

But there’s now a newcomer.

WebP Image Format

Google announced the creation of a new image format, WebP to join their ranks as standard methods for delivering images on the web.

WebP’s goal is to surpass compression file sizes of photographs–a role usually reserved by JPEG. But this JPEG clone has a special talent: It animates! 

So, in essenece, the WebP image format is a merely an evolution of the web graphic, A hybrid of GIF and JPEG file format. 

As modern browsers expand onto more and more onto mobile devices with high resolution displays, the web doesn’t need GIF and JPEG copycats. 

The Problem with Mobile and Images

Problems I discussed when I wrote about the HiSRC jQuery plugin when dealing with a then-hypoethical problem of sending an inline image to an iPad with retina display on a 3G network:

  • Do you deliver the low-resolution, mobile friendly version?
  • Or do you let the iPad 3 have the larger version, but with the longer download time?

Solutions involve sending a serious amount of JavaScript and speed detection tests to devices to be sure of the network speed. 

While I think JavaScript solutions like HiSRC are bandaid on a serious issue, I think it’s better than any proposed alternative.

More Images, More Markup

There’s also an idea of adding another HTML element such as PICTURE as demonstrated in a JavaScript polyfill.

Instead of one IMG element, a web builder is expected to construct several additional lines of code at least one additional line for each device and/or resolution they need to support. 

If Facebook adds 220 million photos per week and flickr 100 million photos per month, those additional lines of code add up quickly. 

What the web doesn’t need isn’t more if-else HTML statements. 

What the web needs is a smarter image format: A responsive image format.

Responsive Image Format

The web needs an image format that, when asked by a browser the server would deliver the right image that contains the right resolution. 

We need an image format that can work in tandem with server and browser to determine the approprirate resolution, pixel 

The interesting part is there is already an image file format that does just that.

It’s called FlashPix.

In a FlashPix file, multiple versions or resolutions of an image are stored in a container.

Which image is delivered by a program like a web browser is a determination that can be made by a virtual handshake between the browser and the web server. 

Why Use This Method?

I’m not saying FlashPix is the solution. I am saying a similar approach should be followed. 

For one, it allows the continued use of the IMG element which is ingrained into the bones, the very marrow, of the Web. 

Secondly, there’s a simple reason why strict coding styles of XHTML was abandoned and loose HTML4 coding practices were instilled into HTML5: 95% of web sites don’t validate.

Asking web designers, bloggers, and non-techies to create multiple versions of their images in order to appease every Android, iOS device and desktop browser seems not only like a very non-standards approach, it’s also not a very practical one.

Content producers that work with the web at least a little bit know the fundamental one-to-one aspect when it comes to publishing images on the web: 

One IMG element somewhat coded correctly results in one image showing up in the browser.

If we go with a solution born from the kin of VIDEO and AUDIO elements–where we do need to balance differing file supoprt due to the browser venders’ turf wars and licensing issues, I believe we surrender a bit of the Open Web mentality for not much gain. 

Another issue is that with a method for inserting images with additional markup means there needs to be widespread change in WYSIWYG editors, their respetive tool bars in Content Management Systems, updated old web pages.

That simply is not going to happen. You will need something on mini-Y2K levels to get companies and organizations to start spending that sort of capital to fix the issue. 

And while I think the retina display is pretty cool, I don’t think this issue rises to that level of concern.

Let Designers Design

If given a choice, I believe web designers would rather export one piece of artwork from Fireworks, Photoshop or whatever their image editor of choice happens to be and let the software compile multiple resolutions into one container file that can then be stored on a server and referenced via an IMG element in an HTML page.

IMG got us this far and it hasn’t failed us yet.

Rather let’s look to make image formats work smarter, work better. 

Two Things To Avoid When Changing Blog Strategies

Growing up in Tallahassee and ultimately going to Florida State University, I’m more than a little partial to following the sports news from the school. Yes, it’s a big college football town, but I also like catching up on basketball and baseball, too. (The former is trying to make a run for the NCAA tournament for the first time in years and the latter went to Omaha for the World Series last year.)

However, quality news about the sports section doesn’t come from the school’s Web site, where at best it’s repository of schedules and copies of Associated Press summaries of games. So, I go to newspaper Web sites to get the latest news and information. 

One such site was a blog my brother turned me onto called The Chopping Block, a blog named after the school’s war chant.

Over the past year or so, it’s been a great insight as it was authored by Andrew Carter, the FSU sports beat reporter for the Orlando Sentinel. The blog posts have been intelligent, fair, and good natured even though some of the blog commentors are sometimes, well, trolls, but that happens pretty much anywere on the Web, especially with sports fans.

And then, it happened. 

The Orlando Sentinel decided to change things up and add more bloggers into the mix.

They then proceeded to do two wrong things in initiating that change.

The first thing they did was not announce the change before it happened. If you respect your blog readership and want to retain those readers, you are going to have to let them know what you intend to do and ask for input–even if you are 99.9% sure you are going to go with what you think is best. 

The Internet is a one-to-one medium, not one-to-many like newspapers. Each person reading the blog has a connection through Carter in his words and relevant postings. The people who come back, come back to pick up on what Carter had to say because he had built up a reputation through his work. 

Instead, readers came to the blog with a new author penning blog posts. My first reaction to the post? The blog had been hacked. It wasn’t till later that day that Carter posted and announced that there were new blog authors joining the group. 

In my brief career working with newspapers, if there was ever a major change to how newspapers were to present a section of the newspaper or a change in a columnist, there would also be some warning or heads up to the readers. Often times, this would be a letter from the publisher or a short note from the relevant editor. Why wasn’t such a common practice in their print world transitioned over to the blog? 

The second thing the Sentinel did wrong was to pick people who don’t offer a similar value that Carter brings. 

The goal with this new direction, as Carter mentioned, was to have the blog be more “frequently updated” and “more active”. I would definitely agree that by adding more people to the mix, the blog will and has already met those goals within the few days since announcement happened. 

However, instead of additional beat reporters, the new stable of bloggers include Sentinel staffers who give their “fan perspective” like Mark Blythe, whose first post was only two sentences and pure smack talk pap. 

From what I’ve seen so far–and granted it’s only a few days worth of new material–there isn’t any new insight, no behind the scenes of press conferences, or thought-added pieces as to why certain decisions have been made. In short, there’s no more additional information I couldn’t have read elsewhere or concluded on my own. The brand or value the blog has given has been diluted. 

While I don’t doubt the new bloggers for the Chopping Block can learn the ropes of how to better utilize the medium, my expectations based on how newspapers have handled their presence online have left me jaded. I expect the signal-to-noise ratio in this blog to increasingly worsen. 

I’m not against Sentinel making money through a more robust online presence and, yes, this is their blog, their Web presence. They can do with what what they will.

I started out as a graphic designer for newspapers, but I found out early on that the Web was going to change how news spreads. After designing for a new medium, there are also new rules in engaging with your customers. 

In order to survive, I believe newspapers should make a more committed transition to the Web in earnest like The Christian Science Monitor or Detroit’s two dailies.

Newspaper executives and managers need to realize that the Web is different than print and not just in terms of how one publishes. With a one-to-one medium, you can make money publishing it, but the need to respect the reader, the community, is more important.