Displaying large images in browser

[Jalenack]

Hey,

I've got about 30 images at about 1000x1000 pixels each, and I want to display them on my site in full detail...They cannot lose much detail because they have tons of important little text items...I'm posting in General Web Building because this is not strictly a HTML thing or a Graphic thing...its more of a ease of use topic. The customer base for the site are bicycle shops, probably not up on the latest technologies and large screens and stuff. I need a way of displaying my images so they are easy to read but don't take up more than 800x600. So here are the options I've been exploring for so far:

Using a pop-up that displays the entire image with the user having to scroll on small screens

Using a flash program to create a "magnifying glass" so the footprint is small but when you rollover a certain area it appears in more detail.

Using a javascript panarama viewer.

Are there any other methods that would be effective? which would you recommend? The flash one is the nicest, but also the hardest to work with and is the least likely to work for everyone. Thanks!

[mcdougals4all]

Have you tried providing a link to the actual image file? So within a thumbnail page for example...
click to <a href="myImage.jpg">view the full size image</a>

[Jalenack]

ya..thats what I meant by the first one choice...i guess pop-up isn't the right word...just viewing the plain file at full resolution in the same or different browser window. on the old site, the images were broken into 4 different quadrants and you could click to load a new page with a different quadrant...seen at http://sutherlandsbicycle.com/AAdetailL1.html - but i don't think thats very user friendly

[mcdougals4all]

on the old site, the images were broken into 4 different quadrants and you could click to load a new page with a different quadrant...seen at http://sutherlandsbicycle.com/AAdetailL1.html - but i don't think thats very user friendly

I think you're right. If the images in question are the forms like you linked to, I'd consider offering them as PDF's.

[mlseim]

For some reason, I remember seeing something in Paintshop or some other
photo/image software that takes a large image and dices it up into smaller
images. So I'm thinking you have your large image saved in all of it's diced
up pieces ... maybe 5 X 5 (or 25 separate images). Then, you have a
small version of the full size image also diced up. You display the smaller
size diced up image with all of the pieces put together, but each piece is
a link to the large size piece. The small size pieces are maybe 1/4 the
size of the full size pieces. Does that make sense? :o

[rmedek]

ya..thats what I meant by the first one choice...i guess pop-up isn't the right word...just viewing the plain file at full resolution in the same or different browser window. on the old site, the images were broken into 4 different quadrants and you could click to load a new page with a different quadrant...seen at http://sutherlandsbicycle.com/AAdetailL1.html - but i don't think thats very user friendly
On the contrary...

I think the reason it's designed like that on the old site is because you are selling forms. So, if there was a way to view a full size form in full detail, no one would buy a form, they would just copy it. Sure, you could copy all four quadrants, then paste them together in Photoshop, but it's a lot of trouble.

I say stick with what you have, or design some other method of giving a "taste" of the form without giving it away...
You display the smaller
size diced up image with all of the pieces put together, but each piece is
a link to the large size piece. The small size pieces are maybe 1/4 the
size of the full size pieces.This seems like a good idea...

[mlseim]

I like the way you have it already ...

But, why not just put the four together using a <table> or CSS?

See this example:
http://www.catpin.com/bike/

I took the four images you had and put them together on the web page.

[Jalenack]

ok thanx guys I think I'll go just take the images and smack em together with CSS...and have the preview in a new window...what I could do is have it like
http://sutherlandsvacsew.com/products/sew120.html

I think that was much nicer...i could add one more button to the zoom tool where you could see the entire image at full res...but I like the idea of having it spliced first...I could also display them as background images to ward off the casual drag and drop...a lot of the clients are too computer savvy...thanx!