This will document content related to the image blog, including how to improve image quality and experience, and colour management within limited bandwidth and object storage.
If you are also interested in these topics, you are welcome to continue reading or discuss with me. Otherwise, this content should be “transparent” to most readers.
Format
AVIF compression parameters, image resolution, and file size are still being adjusted.
Based on visual observation, a 4096px image with a 500KB AVIF file achieves a good balance of visual quality, loading speed, and cost.
OSS
Having considered Alibaba Cloud OSS, with the bucket located in Hangzhou, enabling public read would result in significant outbound traffic and average access speeds overseas. Using a CDN would require domain name registration, which is essentially no less troublesome than using R2 and then adding a CDN.
The cost for Alibaba Cloud’s same-city redundant storage is 0.15 RMB per GB per month, while R2 is 0.015 USD per GB per month, with a 10GB free allowance.
Most importantly, R2 does not charge for outbound traffic. Although domestic access is slower, it won’t break the bank. Therefore, we will temporarily inconvenience domestic users by using R2. If there are indeed many domestic readers in the future, we will consider adding a CDN.
Specific Format of Articles
The difficulty lies in the article filenames, as they become part of the URL. For now, we will use the inelegant but relatively efficient method of combining the theme and date.
Another key point is that there may not be many opportunities to produce large quantities of single-topic images (in layman’s terms, no long trips). If the content is too fragmented, it’s also not ideal. Therefore, we tentatively plan to indicate the number of images in the summary (similar to the ’nP’ notation from the era of image-heavy pages). We will add a brief text description to form a travelogue or diary format centred around images.
HDR
Even RedNote supports HDR images, so what am I waiting for?
Fortunately, since we are using a browser, supporting HDR images is a breeze. Moreover, with an open-source project nearing completion, converting between various HDR image formats is no longer a challenge. The initial idea is to use AVIF with the PQ transfer function (dubbed ISO-22028-5), which will unfortunately inconvenience Android users.
Colour Management
During an interview, the interviewer asked: How can we ensure that images are displayed consistently on everyone’s terminal?
Upon careful consideration, my answer would be: Perhaps it’s impossible. The situations of terminal devices are far too complex; each device’s display technology, colour management, and user settings differ, making it difficult to guarantee a “consistent” display effect. To give an extreme example, I have seen a considerable number of devices with multiple “PC Manager” eye protection modes enabled simultaneously, and the resulting display effect is imaginable.
However, what I can do is provide a solution at the content provider end that is as unified and compatible as possible. Currently, this might be the nclx identifier. It is simple enough, lightweight enough, and testing shows good browser compatibility. The rest is to trust the browser and the system’s colour management.
