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Topic: Resolution of embedded album art (Read 1652 times) previous topic - next topic
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Resolution of embedded album art

In case you embed album art in your music files, which resolution is needed or what is just way too big. Most download stores uses JPEG with 500x500 to 800x800 for this purpose. I had a phase in which the album art couldn't be big enough and I would add very high resolution images.

Now I think maybe I should use a lower resolution image and put the high resolution one as cover.jpg into the directory of the album.

What is your practice with album art? Do you think it matters?

Re: Resolution of embedded album art

Reply #1 –
I put 1200x1200 covers, not larger than 300 kb, as embedded album art and as folder.jpg (same picture). Compression mustn't be lower than 70% in program I use, if I can't achieve 300 kb file size, I lower the resolution to 1080x1080 and try again. If the filesize can't be achieved even with that, I leave it at what it is - but that is very rare, with album art that has many small details.
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Re: Resolution of embedded album art

Reply #2 –
Quote from: tehabe on
Now I think maybe I should use a lower resolution image and put the high resolution one as cover.jpg into the directory of the album.
I'm still in the "bigger is better" crowd - unless it's from an interpolated source.
When it's a whole album, I create a dedicated folder with the songs and front.jpg, back.jpg and so on.
When it's just one or two songs, I'll embed those into the music files.

Re: Resolution of embedded album art

Reply #3 –
I use "cover.jpg" in album folder for my FLAC albums.  Target is 1000x1000.  I don't embed art at all in these files.  But when I create lossy versions of my files for use on my phone, etc., I have the converter embed the artwork instead, and limit size to 500x500.

Re: Resolution of embedded album art

Reply #4 –
I've recently been upgrading my album art from 500x500 to 1000x1000.  I also keep the size limited to about 300kb.  Most of the source images are 1500px+ and well over 1Mb.

On my car stereo, which the album cover display is only about 37x37mm (1⅜" x 1⅜"), the album art looks noticably better at the higher image resolution.

Re: Resolution of embedded album art

Reply #5 –
I roll with 1200x1200x covers from Deezer.  If I had 100k to 250k tracks and upgraded covers to 2000x2000 that they would take up 10gb to 30gb more space.  Some audio players do not play tracks with bigger than 1200x1200 covers that is something to think about. 

Re: Resolution of embedded album art

Reply #6 –
Lately i was playing with downsizing big cover art.
I found jpg still had progress over the years like with guetzli and now i happily use jpegli.
jpegli really helps with size and also can convert to a target size.
Downsizing shouldn't use a to sharp reconstruction filter like Lanczos with the jpeg compression i use at ~Q86. The added pseudo sharpness can add distortion and make files bigger.
I like imagemagick convert and use something like convert -filter Hermite -distort resize 1425 and gamma correction.
The latest paint.net fant reconstruction filter comes near to that.
The size i use is based on an old habbit. The original CD booklets at 300dpi result in 1417 pixel (cm) to 1425 pixel (Inch).

Edit: I am braindead with a flu these days, sorry. This is not meant as embedded art. Maybe it still helps somebody.
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

Re: Resolution of embedded album art

Reply #7 –
I use imagemagick to downsize my images.  I don't use a quality setting, but a target filesize.
Code: [Select]
convert in.jpg -resize 1000x1000 -filter lanczos -define filter:support=1 -sharpen 0.5x0.5 -define jpeg:dct-method=float -interlace none -define jpeg:extent=300k -strip out.jpg

I have that command as part of a script, so if an image is already at 1000px, but is rather large, it won't apply sharpening, but will target 300k in size.  If the image is resized, but was already under 300k, the downsized image won't be a larger file than the original.

Re: Resolution of embedded album art

Reply #8 –
Nice.
I have a script that tells imagemagick to output a png24 and feed this into cjpegli, mozjpeg and cuda guetzli (followed by jpegtran to make it progressive). After that i have a quick view what looks best or is best size and keep this.
I look out for big and clean covers mostly using Album Art Downloader so it is always a downsize.
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

Re: Resolution of embedded album art

Reply #9 –
I haven't tried Album Art Downloader.  Does it work with Linux?

The sources I generally use are:
- AAE (I've been told the name is taboo on some forums).  I can usually find most images in 1500px, 1425px or 1200px.
- fanart.tv - All images are 1000px
- bandcamp - good for recent releases.  Images anywhere from 1000px to 3000px
- Apple Music, Amazon and YouTube music.  Typically when I can't find anything on the first 3 sources, I get lucky with one of these.  You have to modify the URL to get the original quality image though.  I've found album covers up to 5000px.

Re: Resolution of embedded album art

Reply #10 –
Quote from: Replica9000 on
I haven't tried Album Art Downloader.  Does it work with Linux?
No idea. I gave up on linux a few years back.
Album Art Downloader looks up all the places you mentioned i think.
Some Apple covers come in png already. I found no logic behind that. Maybe if something is hard to compress it is not jpg at all!?
For fun you may try "Villagers - Fever Dreams" It comes as a 20MB png.
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

Re: Resolution of embedded album art

Reply #11 –
Quote from: Wombat on
No idea. I gave up on linux a few years back.
Album Art Downloader looks up all the places you mentioned i think.
Some Apple covers come in png already. I found no logic behind that. Maybe if something is hard to compress it is not jpg at all!?
For fun you may try "Villagers - Fever Dreams" It comes as a 20MB png.
Maybe sent as PNG by the label?
I just downloaded the PNG file (Villagers - Fever Dreams), zoomed and checked for jpeg artifacts. It's obviously a jpeg encoding compressed in PNG format.

Re: Resolution of embedded album art

Reply #12 –
Quote from: tehabe on
What is your practice with album art? Do you think it matters?
I don't embed album art.
My practice:
- find a high quality picture through Album Art Downloader if possible
- I'm using Topaz Photo AI (formerly Topaz Gigapixel) to increase resolution, but also remove all jpeg artifacts, etc... It was mentioned once by a new member (here). I tried once: there's a kind of black magic in this software. I immediately fell in love with it and I'm using it to improve all my album art pictures which were never so good. Its also very useful to increase the size of small pictures of albums that are not available on digital platforms and get decent results. The software is rather expensive: better wait for black friday sales.
- I often get a 4000 to 6000 px output. I export it in lossless then convert it in JPEG-XL format, which is amazingly efficient.
- The JXL file is renamed as BEST.jxl, and I'm using this file as a basis for future conversion (I'm using IrfanView on Windows which is user-friendly).

Then I can easily resize & convert my album art (currently on my mobile phone: webp q75 at 1600×1600 => ~130kb on average (30kb min; 800 kb max). On my tablet, JPEG at 3000×3000, 1200 kb output. Quality is here absolutely amazing, much better than CD sleeves and far beyond streaming applications.
 

Re: Resolution of embedded album art

Reply #13 –
Quote from: guruboolez on
I just downloaded the PNG file (Villagers - Fever Dreams), zoomed and checked for jpeg artifacts. It's obviously a jpeg encoding compressed in PNG format.
Yes, the standard release  must be a jpeg while the Deluxe Edition Apple png is not.
The jpegli i mentioned above is part of libjxl and uses some ideas to create standard jpeg files.
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!