better distribution and variation of size, muliple gallery page > collage landscape

denisegoldberg

The distribution and variation of size in images in multiple photo/galleries pages in collage landscape needs to be improved.

My Kaleidoscope page contained 6 photos. It displayed almost as a grid, with 3 photos in each row. I removed one photo. Now I see 4 photos in the top row and one in the second where the one only takes up half of the row. Sometimes resizing the browser window helps, sometimes not.

This style is very interesting when the sizes are varied. It is not interesting when they are not. And I can't understand why something like the screen shot below is ever shown - a 3 in one row 2 in the other orientation would allow both rows to be filled. I also see no (good) reason to make the thumbs in the first row as small as they are.

--- Denise

MomaZunk

Agree

thenickdude

This is a fundamental limitation of SmugMug's collage algorithm. They lay out rows of photos one at a time, without doing any lookahead or fixbehind, so their algorithm doesn't know that by choosing 4 photos for the first row it will leave one photo left over for an ugly final row.

Doing better requires a completely new layout algorithm, such as the Linear Partition Algorithm or the TeX Linebreaking Algorithm. These algorithms can consider the layout of multiple rows of photos at the same time, which solves the awkward final-row issues like the one in your screenshot. (Of those two, LPA is much simpler, and I believe that if you don't want to consider cropping of photos, it produces the provably optimal layout.)

mbonocore

Thanks for the feedback Denise! Submitted.

MomaZunk

what does the jQuery masonary layout use?
That is what my wordpress theme uses for my fine art website that I am working on.

thenickdude

According to the blog of the developers of Masonry, the newest iteration uses an even more general "2D bin-packing" algorithm developed by Jukka Jylänki. A 2D bin-packing algorithm is general enough that it doesn't think in terms of laying out images in rows, it just places them wherever it likes on the page.

Row-based layouts tend to effectively make portrait images much smaller than landscape ones (and column-based layouts do the opposite), but a general 2D bin-packing algorithm can give equal weighting to landscape and portrait images.

Personally, I prefer the regularity of row-based layouts, but I don't have many mixtures of portrait and landscape images.

renstar

Lamah wrote: »

According to the blog of the developers of Masonry, the newest iteration uses an even more general "2D bin-packing" algorithm developed by Jukka Jylänki. A 2D bin-packing algorithm is general enough that it doesn't think in terms of laying out images in rows, it just places them wherever it likes on the page.

Row-based layouts tend to effectively make portrait images much smaller than landscape ones (and column-based layouts do the opposite), but a general 2D bin-packing algorithm can give equal weighting to landscape and portrait images.

Personally, I prefer the regularity of row-based layouts, but I don't have many mixtures of portrait and landscape images.

Frankly, it should be a configuration item, with options for row orientated (LPA, etc) or an algorithm with equal weighting.

everydaymemories

I would like this improved too. The way it is right now sometimes my home page (on which I use portrait collage, if I remember correctly) looks tidy and interesting and other times it looks sloppy or boring. It changes every time I add new photos to my public galleries because I have it set to show recent pictures.

beardedgit

Just in case anyone at SM is in any doubt about the way that the current Collage Landscape algorithm can create crappy collages, here's a screenshot of how it managed to shoe-horn two panorama shots, one portrait shot and three ~standard format shots into just one row:



It looks really bad, no?

I know Jack about how specific algorithms work, but SM should consider using one that recognises long panoramas and reserves a full row for each one (or for each one plus one other non-pano). Maybe a simple "if width/height > n (where n=5 or something like that) then assign a full row" calc would do it? Or maybe just "no rows with more than one image of width/height > n"?

Maybe even let the user choose the value for n?

As for the problems with portrait-format pics in Collage Landscape, being able to specify a minimum image width (by px or by % of row width) would be useful.

Just my 2 groatsworth.

jasonscottphoto

+1

denisegoldberg

bump