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New image sizes?

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    mdraughnmdraughn Registered Users Posts: 38 Big grins
    edited October 17, 2007
    AnneMcBean wrote:
    Yep, so even if you allow people to view images up to X2L, for example... we have to actually generate XL and X2L sizes for your images before they'll be used for custom rendering.

    I'm still having problems with custom rendering.

    I added an invisible watermark to an image to force regeneration. Here's the 3X version of it, to prove that the smugmongous versions exist:

    http://mdraughn.smugmug.com/photos/209446927-X3.jpg

    That's 1600x1067. It's big and beautiful the way smugmug is supposed to be.

    Now I'll use custom rendering to request a slightly smaller version:

    http://mdraughn.smugmug.com/photos/209446927-1590x1590.jpg

    Blurry. I'm beginning to think the custom rendering engine is ignoring the XL sizes.
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    momwacmomwac Registered Users Posts: 65 Big grins
    edited October 17, 2007
    Me too
    Andy wrote:
    Thanks for your plain-talk - we wouldn't want it any other way.

    We're discussing this internally and hope to come to a decision point soon.
    Andy, please throw my concerns in with those expressed by other Power and Standard users. I have two Power user accounts and was planning to add another. Let me explain my situation here. I shoot events for a local school and a youth theatre. I upload my full-size original images for the school to use in its yearbook, and we make the gallery URLs known to students and parents during the year. The school will, at some point, upgrade to a Power user account and sell prints. Having the small images available soon after the event lets the school community celebrate events and builds interest to purchase prints when we make them available (which we're waiting on in hopes that you'll implement packages and coupons soon). Next year we'll be running our own sports league; hence the plan for a new Power user account, to frontload images from this year's sporting events without making them available for sale.

    But you have just made it possible for anyone to download any new image I upload and print a nice 200dpi 4x6 at Walmart -- completely undercutting the school's plans to sell images if I continue to post them. Not only that, you didn't even tell me you were doing it (no message in the account, no email, jeez no flowers or singing telegrams?). I just found out when I uploaded a bunch of new photos, glanced over the gallery, saw the new sizes, and tried to apply restrictions. WTH? Looked for a message... nothing. Hunted around and hit the release notes page... aha.

    When you talked about offering this as a feature, it was pitched as an extra option for Pro users. I don't recall any mention that the rest of us would be forced into the larger sizes. That makes this look much less like a feature, and much more like a sneaky attempt to force a bunch of us to upgrade. If your Pro account supported our needs, we would have started out with a Pro account.

    This morning, the slogan on your release notes blog seems all too apt to me:
    release early, release often: keeping our customers on their toes

    There may be good, sound economic reasons to seek more high-end, revenue-generating users. That may be necessary for the business to continue offering the services it does, and I'd usually rather pay a bit more for great services than see the company fail to remain viable. But only if the company is honest with me. If this is your goal -- to force upgrades to Pro -- you could at least put out a message that warns the Standard and Power users. If not, I hope you'll reconsider and at least allow Power users to pick L or XL as our maximum size. Until today, with my Power user accounts I could restrict image display sizes to the size I chose. You didn't add a feature for us, so much as take one away.

    Edit: Since writing the above, I've understood that what I thought of as "restrict to Large" was really only "deny Original." There are three workarounds to this from my perspective: 1-Upload smaller images, not the right option for me because of the dual uses. 2-Duplicate galleries at different sizes, not a cost-saving option for Smugmug because I'll be using more disk, not less. 3-Move, not the option I want because although I'm fairly new and not yet fully committed to Smugmug, I like the company's historic service-oriented attitude. I'll probably take option #2 and grumble about it at home, because it's extra work for me on every shoot, but it will meet my purpose for the short term. Sorry guys, but I'd have been much happier without this new "feature" making printable sizes of my photos available to viewers.

    Thanks in advance for your consideration.
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    momwacmomwac Registered Users Posts: 65 Big grins
    edited October 17, 2007
    onethumb wrote:
    As someone who *was* part of SmugMug's decision, I can tell you that we never even considered this angle for a single second.

    We definitely thought we were adding features for our customers, not taking them away.
    (snip)
    We've been completely taken by surprise. :)

    - Is this important to you?
    - Do you have a Standard or Power level account (or if you're thinking about signing up, what level you're eyeing)?

    Thanks!

    I just read this post on this thread, and I'm very glad to see what was said here. This is very reassuring.

    My responses.

    Yes, protecting my images at printable sizes is very, very important to me. Being able to display a larger image is not that important to me at all.

    Yes, I have two Power accounts and plan to add one or two more in this academic year. Two of those will ultimately become Pro accounts.
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    BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited October 17, 2007
    Many thanks for taking the time to pour your hearts out regarding this issue. The honest answer is none of us at SmugMug ever imagined this could happen. eek7.gif Nothing would be worse than not knowing we disappointed some of you, so we're glad you spoke up.

    As far as sneaking it out goes, trust me when I say we would have LOVED to spam you with "The extra-large photo sizes you've all been wanting are here!" (We now know that not all were wanting them.)

    If we'd had a clue that there would be consternation instead of the dancing in the streets we had envisioned, we would have figured out how to make more noise in advance of it.

    There's no way we want these larger sizes to be a reason for you to upgrade to a Pro subscription. So we're changing the customize gallery tool for standard and power users to enable you to restrict X2Large and X3Large. It isn't live at the moment, but we're working on it and hope to have it done quickly.

    Why not enable blocking of XL? The answer is XL is the new L. It's a standard feature of photo sharing sites now because L looks so archaic on modern monitors, as our customers tell us all day long. We've tried to provide private islands, plus private and password-protected albums for sensitive photos.

    I hope this helps and wish I had an answer that would please everyone.

    All the best,
    Baldy
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    JenGraceJenGrace Registered Users Posts: 1,229 Major grins
    edited October 17, 2007
    Baldy wrote:
    .......
    I hope this helps and wish I had an answer that would please everyone.

    All the best,
    Baldy

    Thank you. bowdown.gif:):
    Jen

    Gallery of mine...caution, it's under CONSTANT construction! | Photo Journal

    In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary. ~Aaron Rose
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    momwacmomwac Registered Users Posts: 65 Big grins
    edited October 17, 2007
    Baldy wrote:
    There's no way we want these larger sizes to be a reason for you to upgrade to a Pro subscription. So we're changing the customize gallery tool for standard and power users to enable you to restrict X2Large and X3Large. It isn't live at the moment, but we're working on it and hope to have it done quickly.
    God bless you guys!
    Now I know firsthand why your support is legendary. bowdown.gif
    Thank you so much for taking our concerns into account; for my part, I'll wait patiently for the change. This is very much appreciated.
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    WildearthWildearth Registered Users Posts: 6 Beginner grinner
    edited October 17, 2007
    onethumb wrote:
    - Is this important to you?
    - Do you have a Standard or Power level account (or if you're thinking about signing up, what level you're eyeing)?
    I just came across this issue and read the entire thread. I know you've made your decision already, but did want to add my comments. First, it's a shame that so many people assume the worst about others. Of course, you didn't do this with the idea that you'd arm-twist users into an upgrade. One need look no farther than your stated reason of keeping up with the competition. Good for you for working to hard to keep Smugmug on the leading edge. That's good for you and for us.

    That said, I am VERY happy that you have decided to give everyone the option of restricting 2XL and up. I have a power level account and was preparing to ask for the option as so many others did, because I do want control of my images. It never mattered before because the smaller sizes are all so small that no one can really steal your images for print. But now they can and we should be able to control that, whether or not we make out living from this. I would have preferred full control (I can't believe giving us that would cost you even one single pro account), but I can live with the compromise of XL being the new L and your allowing me to limit images above that.

    So thank you, not only for bringing us new features, but for listening when you found out not everyone wanted the new features.
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited October 17, 2007
    mdraughn wrote:
    I'm still having problems with custom rendering.

    I added an invisible watermark to an image to force regeneration. Here's the 3X version of it, to prove that the smugmongous versions exist:

    http://mdraughn.smugmug.com/photos/209446927-X3.jpg

    That's 1600x1067. It's big and beautiful the way smugmug is supposed to be.

    Now I'll use custom rendering to request a slightly smaller version:

    http://mdraughn.smugmug.com/photos/209446927-1590x1590.jpg

    Blurry. I'm beginning to think the custom rendering engine is ignoring the XL sizes.
    It's actually rather complicated and I don't understand how the rendering occurs. I'll try to get an answer for you.
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    deadsmileydeadsmiley Registered Users Posts: 5 Beginner grinner
    edited October 18, 2007
    Baldy wrote:
    Many thanks for taking the time to pour your hearts out regarding this issue. The honest answer is none of us at SmugMug ever imagined this could happen. eek7.gif Nothing would be worse than not knowing we disappointed some of you, so we're glad you spoke up.

    As far as sneaking it out goes, trust me when I say we would have LOVED to spam you with "The extra-large photo sizes you've all been wanting are here!" (We now know that not all were wanting them.)

    If we'd had a clue that there would be consternation instead of the dancing in the streets we had envisioned, we would have figured out how to make more noise in advance of it.

    There's no way we want these larger sizes to be a reason for you to upgrade to a Pro subscription. So we're changing the customize gallery tool for standard and power users to enable you to restrict X2Large and X3Large. It isn't live at the moment, but we're working on it and hope to have it done quickly.

    Why not enable blocking of XL? The answer is XL is the new L. It's a standard feature of photo sharing sites now because L looks so archaic on modern monitors, as our customers tell us all day long. We've tried to provide private islands, plus private and password-protected albums for sensitive photos.

    I hope this helps and wish I had an answer that would please everyone.

    All the best,
    Baldy

    All I can say is thank you for listening to us. You guys have proved once again that you take your customers concerns seriously. I think other sites would have simply told us that the change was final and not up for debate.
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    mdraughnmdraughn Registered Users Posts: 38 Big grins
    edited October 18, 2007
    Andy wrote:
    It's actually rather complicated and I don't understand how the rendering occurs. I'll try to get an answer for you.

    Thanks. I realize you have some bigger issues to deal with regarding XL sizes, but being able to post larger images on my site without giving away the originals was one of the things I was looking forward to.

    It turns out the straight 1X size is only slightly too large for my current design, so I might be able to make it work for now...but I do like being able to choose a precise size...
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    BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited October 18, 2007
    mdraughn wrote:
    It turns out the straight 1X size is only slightly too large for my current design, so I might be able to make it work for now...but I do like being able to choose a precise size...
    Dunno if you've seen this but in case not: http://www.smugmug.com/help/custom-photo-sizes

    That's one thing the pre-rendered extra sizes give us: a way to make custom sizes faster without having to resort to trying to make them off the original, which is slow.
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    GarethLewinGarethLewin Registered Users Posts: 95 Big grins
    edited October 18, 2007
    Baldy wrote:
    There's no way we want these larger sizes to be a reason for you to upgrade to a Pro subscription. So we're changing the customize gallery tool for standard and power users to enable you to restrict X2Large and X3Large. It isn't live at the moment, but we're working on it and hope to have it done quickly.

    Thank you!
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    SUBMONOSUBMONO Registered Users Posts: 8 Beginner grinner
    edited October 18, 2007
    The answer is XL is the new L. It's a standard feature of photo sharing sites now because L looks so archaic on modern monitors
    Thanks a lot for listening to us! I think we all can live with xl as the "new black" in photo sites.
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    udyudy Registered Users Posts: 139 Major grins
    edited October 18, 2007
    Thanks
    Baldy wrote:
    There's no way we want these larger sizes to be a reason for you to upgrade to a Pro subscription. So we're changing the customize gallery tool for standard and power users to enable you to restrict X2Large and X3Large.

    Thanks a lot for the choice.thumb.gif
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    SteveMSteveM Registered Users Posts: 482 Major grins
    edited October 18, 2007
    I personally want to thank everyone for speaking up and voicing their opinions. After we introduced this and realized the possible dislikes, there was much talk around the water cooler, and we can guess, but we really can't "know" until we hear from people.

    If we left this, I'm sure it would have arm-twisted more people into Pro accounts than we'd forfeit from Standard/Power, but we're SO not about that. I'm so proud of SmugMug for who we are.

    And unlike other companies, such as how Google has been painted (truth or fiction), with a "goodguy" public image, yet a mean, self-serving Wizard behind the curtain, we really try to do what's right, and we even listen to Toto, so thanks to EVERYONE who barked.
    Steve Mills
    BizDev Account Manager
    Image Specialist & Pro Concierge

    http://www.downriverphotography.com
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    nsh65nsh65 Registered Users Posts: 1 Beginner grinner
    edited October 18, 2007
    would like to hide originals as before
    Hi,

    I'm a Standard user, and I'd also like to have the option to hide originals as we had before. I was really annoyed to find out after I made one of my most recent galleries public, that users could view my photos in sizes that I really didn't want them to see.

    One thing, on the customize gallery page, I can only select "Original" or "X3Large" in the Largest Size select box. Can you add more sizes in the box, such as Large or XL, please? Also, please restore the "Show/Block Originals" radio button.

    One of the main reasons I joined Smugmug over 2 years ago was because I could block originals without having to resize all my photos. If this feature is permanently removed, I'll be forced rethink my membership.

    I read a few posts up that the management will be restoring some of these features. When can we expect this to be completed?

    Thanks for listening!
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    AnneMcBeanAnneMcBean Registered Users Posts: 503 Major grins
    edited October 18, 2007
    nsh65 wrote:
    Hi,

    I'm a Standard user, and I'd also like to have the option to hide originals as we had before. I was really annoyed to find out after I made one of my most recent galleries public, that users could view my photos in sizes that I really didn't want them to see.

    One thing, on the customize gallery page, I can only select "Original" or "X3Large" in the Largest Size select box. Can you add more sizes in the box, such as Large or XL, please? Also, please restore the "Show/Block Originals" radio button.

    One of the main reasons I joined Smugmug over 2 years ago was because I could block originals without having to resize all my photos. If this feature is permanently removed, I'll be forced rethink my membership.

    I read a few posts up that the management will be restoring some of these features. When can we expect this to be completed?

    Thanks for listening!

    Hi, wave.gif

    Thanks for weighing in. That "largest size" dropdown in your customize gallery pages currently functions the exact same way as the "block originals" option. Choose "original" as your largest size if you don't mind your visitors having access to it, or choose "X3L" as your largest size if you'd prefer to block originals.

    That same dropdown is about to become more powerful, because we'll be giving you the option to choose X2L as your largest size, or XL as your largest size. Choosing XL as your largest size will effectively block X2L, X3L, and your originals. deal.gif

    -Anne
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    dmcdmc Registered Users Posts: 427 Major grins
    edited October 18, 2007
    existing galleries
    Great to have ability to view pics bigger! thanks :D

    Please consider making a tool for us to have the new sizes available in our existing galleries.... I know there is alot of overhead, but I'd rather not re-upload pics, or rotate them, etc. Maybe you allow users to re-gen some limited amount of pictures/galleries per day, in the background... something like that.

    Also, when will the styles support the new sizes? Specifically, I'd like some new features in the Journal style that allows users to select size and pics/page.... (long standing feature request of mine) mwink.gif
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited October 18, 2007
    dmc wrote:

    Also, when will the styles support the new sizes?

    The new sizes work in Lightbox now, fired from SmugMug & Critique.

    The next step is for SmugMug style to allow the use of the new sizes on the page.
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    mdraughnmdraughn Registered Users Posts: 38 Big grins
    edited October 18, 2007
    Baldy wrote:
    Dunno if you've seen this but in case not: http://www.smugmug.com/help/custom-photo-sizes

    That's one thing the pre-rendered extra sizes give us: a way to make custom sizes faster without having to resort to trying to make them off the original, which is slow.

    Yeah, the custom sizes are one of the reasons I host my photos on smugmug---I can redesign my site and adjust photo sizes with a template variable without having to do the heavy lifting of resizing all the photos myself. It's very cool.

    However, my informal testing suggests that the larger sizes aren't actually helping custom sizing right now.

    Here's the X3L of one of my photos, to prove I regenerated it:

    http://mdraughn.smugmug.com/photos/209446927-X3.jpg

    That's 1600x1067. It's big and beautiful the way smugmug is supposed to be.

    Now I'll use custom rendering to request a slightly smaller version:

    http://mdraughn.smugmug.com/photos/2...-1590x1590.jpg

    Blurry. I'm guessing it must have up-rezzed the L size instead of down-rezzing the X3.
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    Ric GrupeRic Grupe Registered Users Posts: 9,522 Major grins
    edited October 18, 2007
    Great! clap.gif
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    SUBMONOSUBMONO Registered Users Posts: 8 Beginner grinner
    edited October 21, 2007
    XL Restriction
    Hi,

    can you give us an estimate when the new restrict to xl-feature for standard and pro accounts will be implemented?

    Thanks,
    Sven
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited October 21, 2007
    SUBMONO wrote:
    Hi,

    can you give us an estimate when the new restrict to xl-feature for standard and pro accounts will be implemented?

    Thanks,
    Sven
    Hi Sven, thanks for posting....

    We're testing it internally... "soon, very soon" is the best I can say at this point.
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    Nicolas_CHNicolas_CH Registered Users Posts: 20 Big grins
    edited October 22, 2007
    Looking forward to the solution!

    Meanwhile I encounter a hickup:
    With my pro account ( http://numimages.smugmug.com/ ) I still see the "old" Small_Medium_Large_Original menu - no 2X3X etc. - in the galleries made befor the change in the Smugmug software.
    Desipte trying to apply a new custom setting it remains like this. When I select "show medium" it'll restrict to medium but with the option set to "Original" I again see the "old" menu only - no 2X3X etc.
    I even tried doing it with IE but ... no success. ne_nau.gif

    There are other funky things going on with the size issue also in my standard accounts galleries but I wait in the hope for an answer explaining those hickups as well ... :D

    Nicolas
    Mainly for private use - no chance to meet your work, guys! http://team-boehmer.smugmug.com
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    SUBMONOSUBMONO Registered Users Posts: 8 Beginner grinner
    edited October 22, 2007
    Andy wrote:
    "soon, very soon" is the best I can say at this point.
    Hi Andy,

    thanks for the info. Very soon sounds very good.

    beer.gif, Sven
  • Options
    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited October 22, 2007
    Nicolas_CH wrote:
    Looking forward to the solution!

    Meanwhile I encounter a hickup:
    With my pro account ( http://numimages.smugmug.com/ ) I still see the "old" Small_Medium_Large_Original menu - no 2X3X etc. - in the galleries made befor the change in the Smugmug software.
    Desipte trying to apply a new custom setting it remains like this. When I select "show medium" it'll restrict to medium but with the option set to "Original" I again see the "old" menu only - no 2X3X etc.
    I even tried doing it with IE but ... no success. ne_nau.gif

    There are other funky things going on with the size issue also in my standard accounts galleries but I wait in the hope for an answer explaining those hickups as well ... :D

    Nicolas
    Hi, if you want the new sizes, you must regenerate the display copies - rotate all left, wait till that's done, then rotate them rightthumb.gif
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    Nicolas_CHNicolas_CH Registered Users Posts: 20 Big grins
    edited October 22, 2007
    Andy wrote:
    Hi, if you want the new sizes, you must regenerate the display copies - rotate all left, wait till that's done, then rotate them rightthumb.gif

    Aah, so everybody is rotating images now - which explains the extreme slow speed of the sites, countless 104 Errors, "rotate" commands which never arrive, uploads which take ages to become calculated images.

    Honestly, I'm confused ... headscratch.gif

    Nicolas
    Mainly for private use - no chance to meet your work, guys! http://team-boehmer.smugmug.com
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited October 22, 2007
    Nicolas_CH wrote:
    Aah, so everybody is rotating images now - which explains the extreme slow speed of the sites, countless 104 Errors, "rotate" commands which never arrive, uploads which take ages to become calculated images.

    Honestly, I'm confused ... headscratch.gif

    Nicolas
    hi Nicolas, the site is fast for nearly all - but not for you -please write our help desk so we can help you have a fast smugmug thumb.gif
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    Nicolas_CHNicolas_CH Registered Users Posts: 20 Big grins
    edited October 22, 2007
    Andy wrote:
    hi Nicolas, the site is fast for nearly all - but not for you -please write our help desk so we can help you have a fast smugmug thumb.gif

    I guess the Smugmug header on top of all galleries " We're having some temporary difficulties. We expect full service to resume shortly. Sorry! " means that I should give it a rest for a while. I'm back in a few hours and hope the troubles are gone.

    Chers

    Nicolas
    Mainly for private use - no chance to meet your work, guys! http://team-boehmer.smugmug.com
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    Jason DunnJason Dunn Registered Users Posts: 95 Big grins
    edited October 22, 2007
    I've noticed something strange about the new sizes: they don't seem to be remembered as they were before. Previously with Smugmug, if I clicked on an image from the Smugmug Gallery view it would take me to the "full image" view - and if I had last clicked size "M" it would remember that. Now if I go to an image:

    http://photos.jasondunn.com/gallery/3688300#211057076-A-LB

    Then I click XL:

    http://photos.jasondunn.com/gallery/3688300#211057076-XL-LB

    ...and shut down the browser tab (I'm not clearing out cookies or anything, just closing the tab), and head back to the gallery, I once again see the size large. It even happens when I click on the image to go back to the Smugmug gallery view...clicking on an image takes me to a size "L" preview, not the XL I had previously selected. This is in Firefox 2.0.0.8 on Windows Vista.

    Internet Explorer 7 has it's own quirks - it ALWAYS presents size XL, even if I've previously selected size "M"...except the URL looks like it's size large:

    http://photos.jasondunn.com/gallery/3688300#211057983-A-LB

    headscratch.gif I know I read in this forum that XL is the new size "L", but regardless, shouldn't Smugmug continue to remember the size that the user selected? XL is great, but maybe someone with a low-res monitor (or someone that isn't browsing full screen) would prever to have size "L". I always liked that feature about Smugmug...
    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    The Photos: photos.jasondunn.com
    The Blog: www.jasondunn.com
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