The Not-So-New Image Size: Medium 640

Frank Whitney, fighting carpenter (LOC)In July 2010 we launched a new photo page that displays photos at up to 640 pixels on the largest side. In the months leading up to this launch we did a lot of work to support generating this new size, along with making our support of the Large image size more consistent.

Medium 640

We started adding support for the new Medium 640 size(_z suffix) on March 31st 2010. We generated a Medium 640 size for all photos uploaded after that date. Over the next couple months after that we found and corrected instances where we were not fully supporting this size. We display the Medium 640 size on the Photo, Photostream and All Sizes pages.

Dynamically Generated Images

If a photo was updated/uploaded before March 31st 2010 then we do not have a Medium 640 size on file and will try to dynamically generate it. We can do this if a large version of the photo exists, or if the original is a jpeg that has not been rotated(when you see an image URL that ends in _z.jpg?zz=1, the zz=1 indicates we can generate from an original). By doing this we make a lot of old photos display at 640 on the new Photo, All Sizes and Photostream pages. And every time we generate a Medium 640 image it gets cached, so we don’t have to generate it again for a while. If we can’t generate the image dynamically, we fall back to displaying the Medium 500.

Generating photos dynamically needs to be happen fast, so we don’t try to generate a Medium 640 from the original if the photo has been rotated or needs to be converted from a non-jpeg format.

Larges For All

We wished we had generated a Large size in the past for all photos uploaded, it would have made it simpler to dynamically generate the Medium 640 size. Before May 25th 2010 we only generated Larges for photos uploaded greater than 1280 in size, now we generate a Large no matter what size is uploaded. This is great for certain types of photos, for example we can now display 800×600 photos(common to some camera phones) as a Large in Lightbox or on the All Sizes page. So, a Large photo will be 1024 pixels in size on the longest side, or the same size as the original if something smaller than 1024 pixels was uploaded(we never scale a photo larger, an original photo of 800×600 will have a Large that is 800×600). You can expect the Large to always exist for newly uploaded photos.

Using the API

The best way to get the URL for a Medium 640 is to include url_z in the extras field when calling the flickr API. When photo data is returned, it will also include the full Medium 640 URL in url_z, along with height_z and width_z. Constructing the URL from the photo data returned will also work, but less reliably for photos before March 31st 2010.
http://farm{farm-id}.static.flickr.com/{server-id}/{id}_{secret}_z.jpg
See: http://www.flickr.com/services/api/misc.urls.html

A lil’ time with… Stephen

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Who are you, and what do you?

I’m Stephen Woods and I’m a frontend engineer at Flickr. Along with the rest of our team I am responsible for the bits that make the UI work, which mostly means html, css and javascript. So I write code, but I also make sure the design of the site looks and works the way the designers want it to.

What hardware are you using?

In terms of computers I have 15″ MacBook Pro with a 24″ monitor, as well as the standard ipad and iphone. I don’t have a desktop anymore and I do any hacking or side projects on a slicehost image. I used to have a pretty large collection of random computers and desktops, but over the years I have really cut back on hardware, it just doesn’t seem necessary anymore. Like a lot of people here I also enjoy photography. I have a digital rebel xsi and a someone worse for wear 4×5 view camera, neither of which I use as much as I would like.

And what software?

I use TextMate (and sometimes vim) for coding. My development browser is mostly Safari, with Firefox/firebox for some things. I use Charles proxy a lot for HTTP debugging. VMWare fusion is indispensable. I have a portable hard drive with a little collection of VM images to test all the various browsers out there.

I am also completely dependent on Evernote. I use it for everything. Frequently I remember something I need to do or figure out a problem while lying in bed, so I just grab my ipad, write down my notes and they are on my laptop when I need them.

What would be your dream setup?

My dream setup would be the MacBook Pro with the good video so I could actually play games on it. Otherwise I am pretty much living the dream.