2009 January 13th
Just had a thought that maybe the browsers could sort this out. A browser could detect when a JPEG is shown smaller than full-size and choose to download only what is needed.
For example, if a JPEG is displayed 100% or larger then the full image is downloaded. If displayed at 20% then maybe only the first pass is downloaded. If then changed to 100% with Javascript or CSS or both, then a browser would download the rest of the image.
2009 January 8th
Not possible as far as I’m aware, but thumbnails do annoy me. Either they are processed smaller version of the full image – a form of duplication. Or the full version is used but displayed smaller – bandwidth, page loading times and browser image resizing beauty niggles.
Progressive JPEGs load progressively with each iteration enhancing the previous. The first iteration will be poor quality but probably good enough to pass as a thumbnail. Then if the full image is wanted the browser will just download what it doesn’t already have.
Anyone know if this is possible?