Yes, image compression is still a thing
As you might recall, i wrote about this issue some time ago. Yep, it’s been over a year. What has happened since? Not too much, i’m afraid. Things were being discussed for a while, until back in March of this year when we got one final official update (that i know of). Has the issue been fixed since? Nope, it certainly has not.
Now here’s the kicker: I did some digging and found a shockingly easy fix.
Let’s take this image by the talented JenZee:
<da:thumb id="728789495"/>
Note: Jen Zee isn’t just anyone. She’s the Art Director of Supergiant Games, responsible for the amazing games Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, and now Hades. And what does she write in the artist’s description? “Hmmm, not sure why but it’s uploading super blurry on deviantart 
!” That should tell you something.
Alright, back to the image. If you rightclick on the image (either the full view or small view) and hit ‘view image’ and then take a look at the URL bar of your browser, you’ll see a rather long string, akin to this:
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/86c763db-05d4-49d1-b781-18edc71c539b/dc1whkn-f634fd71-ca87-41d3-81d2-137738a18705.png/v1/fill/w_900,h_900,q_80,strp/celeste_and_tariq_by_jenzee_dc1whkn-fullview.jpg?token=[snip]
(I took out the token at the end, since it’s not relevant to my point.)
I highlighted this little detail for you: q_80. Which you can guess, means, quality of 80. If you change the value to 100, you’ll get the pristine quality you would expect and want from a proper art site (like DeviantArt). (Note: Sometimes you’ll find q_70, usually on smaller views and thumbnails.)
Now, if someone could write a userscript that automatically changes this value to 100 across the board, that would be awesome. And i do mean ‘across the board’, since this compression also applies to thumbnails and small views, as i’ve mentioned – even if the actual images are PNGs (where you won’t see this q_80 setting).
So there’s your fix. Didn’t i mention how shockingly easy it would be? What i find even more shocking, however, is that DA is deliberately withholding this best quality from us. I find this unacceptable – even if we had a script that fixes this. After all, this is not Facebook or Instagram, where i go to when i’m bored. This is DeviantArt, and i hold them to higher standards. Yes, q_70 and q_80 uses much less bandwidth compared to q_100. But if this image processor they’re using isn’t up to the task, there are dozens of alternatives that can be implemented in its stead.
I’ll end this with my usual plea: Please DeviantArt, stop ruining our images!
P.S.: If you’re reading this in Eclipse, sorry that this journalskin looks so bad!
Pinging some of you admins again: spyed ikazon danlev Heidi moonbeam13 ArtBIT dt
