Alamy Size Checker by David Anderson

[John Walker]

For a few years I've used the Alamy Sizer Checker program by David Anderson.  An extremely useful program for checking image sizes and colour profile prior to uploading a batch.

 

It used to check for updates as it opened but now reports an error at this stage.  Fortunately, it still works as a program.

 

Does anyone know if David is still making this program available?

 

John

[Vincent Lowe]

I think he retired and no longer supports it.  Can't find the link now but, as you say, the program still works and I still use it..

 

Edit - it appears to be available from this site - https://alamy-sizecheck.software.informer.com/  but I haven't clicked on the download button.   Looks a bit dodgy to me - download at your own risk...!

Edited August 5, 2021 by Vincent Lowe

[Ed Rooney]

 

I used to use that Alamy size checker. It got lost in my travels. Anyway, I don't really need it anymore. Now I just check the image size in PS and if it's above 30MG I'm good to go. 

[John Walker]

Thank you Ed and Vincent

[Graham]

I  have used it relatively recently, to check maximum sizes.  I believe that the maximum upload size is still 200 MB.  Some of my panoramas come out much larger than that.  This is the easiest way to check whether I need to downsize them.  If I do, I have a spreadsheet which calculates the long edge dimension on export required to keep the image size to 1 pixel less than that which produces the 200 Mb threshold.  

 

Graham

[Harry Harrison]

7 hours ago, Graham said:

I believe that the maximum upload size is still 200 MB

This page states that the maximum compressed file size is 200MB, though in this case for 360 degree panoramics, so that would be the size of the jpeg on disc, or is that a mistake on their part? 

 

https://www.alamy.com/contributor/how-to-sell-images/guidelines-for-submitting-images/

 

Clearly a compressed file size of 200MB is likely to be extraordinarily large in terms of pixel dimensions, though I don't know much about 360 degree spherical panoramics. I can't find any other stipulation regarding maximum file size.

Edited August 14, 2021 by Harry Harrison

[Graham]

Yes, you are right, it is compressed size, and this is what Alamy Size Checker reports.  
 

Some of my panoramas are huge, which means that I have regularly had to scale the size back in order to keep within 200 MB. As resolution of modern cameras increases, this will become an increasing issue: a 15 to 20 shot panorama with a vertical dimension for each image in excess of 6000 pixels will result in a pretty large compressed and actual size file - eventually, once the computer has managed to process it!  I think the biggest one I have had to scale down had an original long dimension of around 55,000 pixels, which was probably the output from around 40 overlapping images.  The ones where I stitch both vertically and horizontally tend to get pretty huge as well.  

 

My panoramas have not sold particularly well, other than a few of the City of London skyline, but I do them for my own satisfaction and have uploaded them since I have produced them anyway, for which the size checker has been invaluable.  I have almost never needed it to check minimum file size, except for a very few extreme crops or images from my first DSLR from nearly 20 years ago (which was 6 megapixel - minuscule by today’s standards!). 
 

Graham

[M.Chapman]

1 hour ago, Graham said:

it is compressed size, and this is what Alamy Size Checker reports.

 

Alamy Size Checker reports (and checks) the uncompressed size.

 

Mark

[Harry Harrison]

It seems that True Virtual Tours permit jpegs up to 500MB, so that makes Alamy's 200MB compressed limit look modest.

[Harry Harrison]

1 hour ago, Graham said:

My panoramas have not sold particularly well, other than a few of the City of London skyline, but I do them for my own satisfaction and have uploaded them since I have produced them anyway, for which the size checker has been invaluable.

Actually Graham, I think we're getting our lines crossed a bit here, your spectacular London skyline images come in under the 200MB uncompressed limit, the jpeg (compressed) sizes are quite modest, probably due to the amount of sky. I'm wondering if these 360 virtual tour specifications are also referring to the eventual uncompressed size of the jpegs, but I don't know enough about it. I too enjoy doing panoramics but I don't have any on Alamy. I marvel at the amount of detail but I suppose it must be a pretty niche market place.

[Graham]

You are both correct - greenie for both - uncompressed size.  Thank you.  Whichever, I use Alamy Size Checker to check that the size is something less than 200MB.

 

Graham

 

Edited August 15, 2021 by Graham

[Graham]

Ok, I have got my thinking head back on now.  Uncompressed size is entirely related to image size.  Compressed size is variable according to JPEG compression.

 

I mentioned above that I use a spreadsheet to calculate the pixel dimensions (to use in Lightroom export) to keep the image within 200 MB.

 

My spreadsheet looks like this:

 

Size calculator
Original Width	56,831
Original Height	6,579
Ratio	8.64
Current size (MB)	1,095
Required width for 200 MB	24,573

The two red figures are of course entered manually, the others are calculated by the spreadsheet.  If anyone would like to replicate this in Excel (assuming the original width is in cell B2, and so on), the cell formulae are as follows:

 

Ratio:  =B2/B3

Current size:  =B2*B3*3/1000000/1.024

Required width: =SQRT(200*B4/3)*1024-1

 

The Lightroom Image info (keyboard shortcut i) will give you the image dimensions.  In this example, putting 24,573 as the long edge in Lightroom export (Image size > Resize to fit > Long edge) should result in an exported image having an uncompressed size of round about 199.95MB uncompressed file size (no need to complete the resolution box in Image Sizing, just leave it blank. 

 

Obviously, if you want to use a similar formula to make sure that you are exporting a minimum uncompressed file size, just change the figures in the Required width formula (and add, not subtract, a pixel) - e.g. for a minimum of 17MB uncompressed, the formula would be Required width: =SQRT(17*B4/3)*1024+1 (and if you use Lightroom to export and upscale, make sure that the don't enlarge box is not ticked if you want to enlarge, although my preference would be to have resampled first).  For minimum sizing, the better thing to do, in my opinion, is just use the spreadsheet formula to check that the long edge is long enough (if your long edge is larger than that set out in the spreadsheet, you have an image which is more than your minimum uncompressed size), otherwise you risk downsizing down to (in this example) 17MB if you use this figure for export.

 

Hope this helps, particularly if Alamy Size Checker is not available or does not work on some systems any more.

 

Graham

 

[M.Chapman]

I believe the correct equation for the uncompressed size (as used by PS and the Alamy SizeChecker program) in MB is

Size (MB) = Width (in pixels) x Height (in pixels) x 3 / 1024^2

 

So for your spreadsheet

Current size: (Cell B4) = B2*B3*3/1024^2

 

Also, using your equations, the required width doesn't match answer shown in your example. Not sure what's happened there.

 

Mark

 

OK I did some cross-checking. Your final answer 24,573 is right, so the actual equations being used must be different to those you show.

There's also no need to calculate the ratio which can simplify things a bit. Here's my version with the equations shown in italics. I've also forced a round down using the INT function as well as subtracting 1, to be doubly safe, especially as it's not clear how PS calculates the height when entering a new width (does it round up or down??).

 

 

Mark

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2021 by M.Chapman

[Graham]

 I’ll check it when I am back home. Has always worked so far. Maybe I saved it between updates 😄. I know that I don’t update the sizes, because it is a record for me of the largest panorama I have uploaded to Alamy.  That aside, I think the formulae work, but will check.  
 

The ratio is not needed, but I like to see it for my panoramas.  It is also useful because there is a POD site to which I contribute which has a maximum limit on panoramic ratios.  
 

I have only ever once had an incorrect answer, in that Alamy Size Checker returned a size fractionally in excess of 200MB. I was not able to find out why, but it was quicker to reduce the size by a further pixel and re-export, rather than worry too much about this 😱

 

Graham

Edited August 15, 2021 by Graham

[M.Chapman]

For completeness here's my attempt at the equations for calculating the resize dimensions for any image so that it just exceeds 17MB (the lower Alamy limit).

 

 

Here I've rounded up and then added 1 to be on the safe side.

 

Mark

Edited August 16, 2021 by M.Chapman

[Vincent Lowe]

Are the target height and width in column A wrong way round?

[M.Chapman]

1 hour ago, Vincent Lowe said:

Are the target height and width in column A wrong way round?

Oops well spotted I've now fixed - THANKS!

 

Mark

Edited August 16, 2021 by M.Chapman

[MDM]

The above info is outdated and incorrect. There is no 200MB limit any more on normal panoramas. I just uploaded two panos - 279MB and 198MB (file sizes on disk 46.2 and 41.2MB). There used to be a 200MB limit but it hasn't existed for a few years now. It is no big deal anyway as the system would just reject them - it did not mean a QC failure.