CONTENT TRENDS

Dynamic Imaging enables adult websites to save time, cut production costs and improve image security while opening the door to a new set of revenue-generating imaging applications.CONTENT TRENDS

Dynamic Imaging enables adult websites to save time, cut production costs and improve image security while opening the door to a new set of revenue-generating imaging applications. Learn how Dynamic Image Zoom, Resizing, Spin and Bandwidth Optimization are changing the face of adult imaging on the Internet.

(Part One of Two)

· Want to enhance your surfers’ experience by letting them interactively zoom in on your images?

· Want to let surfers see the detail of your images in a way that does not allow them to download your original source files?

If so, you should check out a new and better way of dealing with images – Dynamic Image Serving (DIS). Jack Martin from Cool Piranha describes DIS as a “massively powerful and highly efficient imaging technology that allows users to interact with images in exciting new ways, thus increasing membership conversion and retention, whilst internally it can save thousands of dollars in production costs. DIS is the way of the future but it’s here today. Cool Piranha would not be without it.”

What Is Dynamic Image Serving?

An increasing number of websites are moving from traditional, manual methods of handling images to more modern and powerful imaging solutions. You may have heard some new terms being bandied about: Server Side Imaging, Image Serving, Dynamic Imaging. These capabilities are all part of a new web technology broadly known as Dynamic Image Serving.

What can Dynamic Image Serving do for an adult website? It allows you to:

· Slash offline image production and publication costs

· Increase revenues by enhancing user experience with interactive imaging applications like “zoom” and “spin”

· Tailor the size of images to enhance user experience and control bandwidth costs

· Improve image security

So what is Dynamic Image Serving? Simply stated, DIS is the generation and delivery of web images in real-time from your original source files. DIS software runs on your existing server and quickly and efficiently generates all your web images from your high quality, original source file images.

Traditional Imaging

Let’s take a step back and review today’s more traditional static imaging workflow to set the stage. It goes something like this: Start with a high resolution source image, then figure out all the variations (derivatives) of this image needed for the website. This may be a thumbnail, a midsize, a medium size with watermark, and an enlargement with a different watermark, etc. Now generate all of these derivatives for every source image either by hand or using some offline batch process, then store, index and propagate all those derivatives to the web servers.

If this sounds familiar, it should since this is how the vast majority of sites are getting images online today. Unfortunately this static approach is plagued with familiar problems: It’s slow, time-consuming, expensive, inflexible and it results in a less-than-ideal user experience! Furthermore, if you ever decide to redesign your website, you may have to recreate all of your derivative images.

Image Resizing

Which brings us back to Dynamic Imaging. Dynamic Imaging starts with the same high-resolution source image. But instead of “dumbing down” this image to create a cumbersome collection of derivatives, this high resolution source is simply stored on a server running DIS software.

The Image Server is now ready to deliver all required derivatives of this image exactly where, when and how you need them. The following diagram shows how you call derivative images on-the-fly from the Image Server:

See dynamic Image Resizing in action

The Image URL beside each image shows a call to the same source image but with a slightly different width command, the wid=xxx shown in red. It is the Image URL, with various parameters, that tells the Image Server what you want a particular derivative image to look like. In the above example, the Image Server will generate a thumbnail, medium or large size image. Since there’s nothing like seeing to believe, you can follow this link or the link above to look at a live image-resizing demo with adult content. For a non-adult demo, visit TrueSpectra’s website at www.truespectra.com. Try generating your own versions of the images by changing the width command or using the visual Image URL Generators included in the demo.

You may think that on-the-fly generation of derivatives will slow down your site performance. Not so. DIS Software has been optimized to ensure high performance delivery of your images and uses intelligent caching of images. DIS Software operates today on a large number of high volume production websites, including Cool Piranha’s existing Content site (http://www.coolpiranha-content.com) and its soon to be launched Lease Galleries.

Jack Martin of Cool Piranha adds, “We have over 500,000 images, so imagine the costs of having to re-size those in 3, 4, or 5 formats should we decide that we want thumbnails or display images in a different size than they are today. The expensive way is to do it manually – the smart way is to let the software do it for you automatically.”

Really Cool Zoom And Pan

Of course image resizing isn’t the only application of this technology. Once your source images are on a dynamic image server, you can create just about any other variation you can imagine just by applying more commands – think PhotoshopTM without the desktop. Zoom is another great example of Dynamic Image Serving in action.

With Zoom, the same source image is called, but this time with a crop and resize commands.

See dynamic Zoom in action

With Zoom, the surfer gets a more interactive and compelling way to look at images with the ability to focus in on the details most interesting to them. Not only can you zoom in on an image, you can also click and drag (pan) the image to focus in on any area of interest. You can click on this link or the link above to look at a working Zoom demo with adult content. Check out the full screen Zoom!

This Zoom capability is easy to add to your images. Using the Image URL Generator in the demo, you can easily add zoom to your images. Try it!

Want to add any of these zoom enabled images to your website? Feel free to use the Image URL Generator to add the code you need to link to these zoom enabled images from your website. You are welcome to link to these images free for the next 90 days compliments of TrueSpectra and Cool Piranha Adult Hosting.

Want To Control The Size Or Weight Of Your Images?

DIS also makes it easy for you to control the size or weight of your images. This allows you to send lower resolution images to dial-up users, to send higher resolution images to broadband users, or to control bandwidth costs.

Here’s how it works:

See dynamic Bandwidth Optimization in action

Note that the size of the image is controlled by simply inserting the quality command, the qlt=xxx shown in red, into the Image URL.

With dynamic bandwidth optimization, it’s possible to apply more compression to all of your site’s images when your web traffic starts peaking up to your committed information rate. Bandwidth optimization can drop your usage back into the standard range, eliminating some if not all of those expensive bursting fees.

What’s In Part Two Of This Article Series?

Next week’s article will show you a really cool form of spin and zoom, explain how to protect the security of your original source file images and cover other image effects you can easily introduce with Dynamic Image Serving.

Want To Learn More?

More information on Dynamic Image Serving, including demos, white papers and developer guides, is available from TrueSpecta®’s website, www.truespectra.com. For additional information, contact sales@truespectra.com or call 1-866-237-4462.

Cool Piranha Adult Hosting is now offering TrueSpectra Dynamic Imaging as an add-on feature to its hosting services. The monthly charge for this service starts as low as $50. For more information, go to http://www.coolpiranha-hosting.com.

*** YNOTMasters Special Offer — YNOTMasters has negotiated a special price from TrueSpectra for adult website operators for a limited time. From now through April of 2003, TrueSpectra has agreed to offer its Image Server – Version 4.1, to adult Webmasters that reference this article at $5,000. This reflects a YNOTMasters volume discount of 50%! ***

TrueSpectra, Inc. is the leading provider of Dynamic Image Serving Software. TrueSpectra’s Image Server Software is available for Solaris 7 and 8, Windows 2000/NT/XP and Linux (Red Hat 7.3) and is available in two versions. Image Server Version 4.1, a production server appropriate for large websites, sells for $9,995 per dual CPU server, plus support. Image Server Developer Edition is a desktop version for developers and small websites that sells for $499 and can be purchased at www.truespectra.com. For more information please contact John at Johng@TrueSpectra.com.

Cool Piranha USA, Inc. is a leading content provider to the Adult market. Having used and benefited from TrueSpectra’s technology, it has launched Cool Piranha Adult Hosting to bring these and other advantages to Webmasters both big and small via dedicated and managed hosting solutions. For information and demonstrations please visit http://www.coolpiranha-hosting.com.