JQuery cropping

I'm really just writing to ask whether what I plan to do is considered of general interest to others.
We find a lot of our customers really don't want to get involved with any form of image resizing or cropping. the result is that sites are often spoilt by poorly sized images.

We have decided that we are going to integrate one of the J query cropping tools into CMS builder. I was just wanting to ask whether someone has already done this or if not, whether you guys think it's a good idea.
We are looking to integrate something similar to http://deepliquid.com/projects/Jcrop/demos.php

Any comments would be greatly appreciated, especially any from you great guys at interactive tools :-)

Geoff

Re: [Vaisoco] JQuery cropping

By Jason - December 15, 2011

Hi Geoff,

In the past, there has been a lot of talk throughout the community about different cropping options. I know some users have added an online cropping option to CMS Builder through an iframe, usually using the Modify Homepage plugin (http://www.interactivetools.com/add-ons/detail.php?Modify-Homepage-1028).

You could certainly do something like this, or create a plugin to allow users to crop images.

Let us know how this goes or if you have any questions.
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Re: [Vaisoco] JQuery cropping

Hi Vaisoco,

When you say "spoilt by poorly sized images", do you mean aspect ratios that make layouts look weird? Because we all know that CMSB can re-size uploads to fit maximum allowable spaces without changing the aspect ratio.

I work with a lot of artists and this is often an issue between us. They want the image that they want, where they want it.

They feel that their images are what they are, and they can't be altered. Made smaller, yes but not cropped to fit a predetermined aspect ratio.

Still, good looking pages dictate that a little thought and planning must go into the choice of images for a particular presentation.

That means "taste". Which is sometimes a rare commodity.

So, giving our clients (and their clients) yet another tool to muck things up with, might not be the best solution.

I think this topic is worthy of some more discussion before spending time and money on a solution that may cause more issues then it solves.

I usually offer my clients the cloud image editor Pixlr Express http://www.pixlr.com/express through the modify home page plugin.

Most like it (it's easy, fast, cloud based, and free). They seldom use it to change the aspect ratio of their images for their sites.

Just my 2 cents.

Best,

Jerry Kornbluth
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Re: [gkornbluth] JQuery cropping

I must say I totally agree.
We work extremely to create user interfaces that are pixel perfect. images can quite literally make or break a website and have such a marked effect on user impact and engagement. We size our images to create great structure and although CMSB can indeed resize based on maximum height and width, this results in images that are not the sizes we require.
We have so many customers tell us that they have "never used an image program before" or "surely it doesn't matter that much, does it?". The long and short of it is that it absolutely does matter and that's why we were looking to provide a tool that would allow the customer to see how the images would look with predefined dimensions.
Your idea of using this free tool is just great and probably something we should have considered sooner.

My sincere thanks