Download Original Image

Hi Guys,

I’m setting up galleries for clients to download images. I’m a bit perplexed by the choices - I’d really like an option to “Download Original” but that isn’t a choice which is unfortunate and would make thing easy,

I read in a note somewhere in this support forum that if I select “Create custom download rendition via Publisher” and set the size to the max 9999x9999 it will not upscale the original - which is a kludge for download original.

Can you please confirm that the resize won’t make a bigger image AND can you consider an option to download the original uploaded file for a future update.

Thanks in advance,

Larry

You can have the original available for download. It’s a manual upload process though.

That is true. I just tested it with a template set to create renditions for download set at 9999x9999. The originals are 8256 on the longest side and that’s what was created.

Thanks Rod - I was aware of that option, but then there are multiple copies of the image file to maintain, so it’s a bit of a bother and time consuming when the original is already on the server.

Thanks - it is a practical work-around to the lack of “Download Original” - it would be great if that info was in the “Image Downloads” documentation.

I tried those settings for myself and found “interesting” results - in the gallery/name folder there are folders for “photos”, “master” and “photos-for-download” that have respective file sizes for the same image:

“master” → 1,824,312
“photos” → 830,915
“photos-for-download” → 1,812,310

So that suggests Backlight is still processing the image and making that third copy for download, I guess because of the quality setting?

Anyway, this is a suitable kludge, and maybe one day in the future…

Thanks again for confirming that detail!

The file size difference between the master and photos-for-download rendition is likely due to a change in the embedded metadata. Backlight inserts creator and copyright information into the renditions, which is especially important when images have been resized. Those resized images would otherwise lose all metadata.