Fuzzy Blog Photos? Here’s A Simple Explanation

Quite some time ago, I don’t remember exactly when, I noticed that the photos in my blog were looking a bit ‘fuzzy’.  When I clicked on a photo to see it enlarged at 1600 x 1200 it always showed crystal clear.  I just wrote it off to Blogger’s JPEG compression algorithm and made a mental note to check into it further one day.  That day was yesterday and I came to a surprisingly simple conclusion.

Image 1:  Using ‘CTRL +’ to re-size window to fill 22” monitor

The ‘fuzzy’ photo problem wasn’t due to Blogger’s compression, my camera, Picasa re-sizing or any other complicated technical reason.  It is simply a case of me telling my browser to display the photo at a much larger size than the actual photo.  I did this by using the ‘CTRL +’ keys to make my blog fill up my widescreen 22” monitor.  Doing this causes a ‘fuzziness’ problem with images on all blogs I read.

Image 2:  Reducing the display to make image closer to actual size

The reason is pretty simple.  First, most of my images are inserted into my blog with a standard width of 420 pixels.  The default screen resolution of my 22” monitor is 1920 pixel width.  So, when I use the ‘CTRL +’ keys to make my blog appear larger on my screen, I’m also, in effect, resizing my photos from their original 420 pixel width to well over double that – maybe even over 1,000 pixels wide.  This is exactly what causes my photos to appear fuzzy on my monitor.

To confirm this, I simply used the ‘CTRL –‘ keys to reduce the blog area displayed on my monitor (Image 2).  As I did this, the photo became clearer and sharper.  After a bit of trial and error, I was able to configure the display size of my blog to one that gave me the best combination of text size and image quality.  I quickly realized that it’s not necessary, nor advisable, to display my blog using the maximum screen width available.  Lesson learned.

For a lot of RV’ers on the road this issue may not be a problem at all because we mostly use laptops or iPads etc. which have much more modest screen displays maxing out at 17”.  For those with larger monitors though, if you think your blog photos are a bit fuzzy, you might want to experiment with the ‘CTRL’ keys to determine the optimum size for your blog.  The good thing is that once it’s set, it will stay there without any further need to adjust it.

While thinking about photos in blogs, I got to wondering how many of us actually click on photos to see them enlarged.  So, I created a little poll and I hope you’ll take the time to respond:

As far as clicking on images in blogs, I’ll have to admit that I don’t do it very often, but I do click on an image if it’s particularly good.

And, speaking of good photos, remember back during the Summer Olympics when U.S. Olympic Gymnast, McKayla Maroney became famous for her ‘not impressed’ look while on the podium to receive a Silver Medal?  It was a classic:

Mikayla Maroney was ‘not impressed’ at winning a Silver Medal

Well, Mikayla and the rest of her American Olympic Gymnast team was at the White House this week and, apparently, President Barack Obama is a big fan of her ‘look’.  He says he uses that look at least once every day.  The President asked Mikayla to pose with him:

Who has the best ‘not impressed’ look?

This photo, by White House Photographer, Pete Souza went viral on the Internet yesterday. 

Have a great Sunday, and thanks again for visiting!