Examining the Goods:
Flashpix Imaging Technology
Web Commerce Today, Issue 18, January 15, 1999
|
| Flashpix demonstration courtesy of Live Picture, Inc. Click on image to see magnification. |
On the Web you don't have "feelies." But images for an online catalog are getting much better. A new image format standard, Flashpix, allows the shopper to magnify an image several times, so at the highest magnification you can even peer into the weave of the cloth. I expect that within a year it will be common in a number of online stores, especially those that sell apparel, jewelry, antiques, and other items shoppers need to get a good look at before they purchase.
The Online Store Advantage
Apparel manufacturer HornyToad (http://www.hornytoad.com) sells their clothing through a single company-owned retail store, as well as wholesale to about 450 retail outlets. They set up their site to draw interest to their clothing, not only to sell directly over the Web, but also to send visitors to stores that carry their line. "We've been using Flashpix photos since the Fall of 1997," says Tammy Snow, marketing director for HornyToad. "For us it is important because it differentiates our line. Most of our clothing has some kind of interesting detail or finishing about it. With Flashpix, people are able to see our details."
Stores that currently are using Flashpix or have a project in the works include:
- HornyToad (http://www.hornytoad.com - Live Picture)
- The GAP (http://www.gap.com - Live Picture)
- Bloomingdales (http://www.bloomingdales.com - Live Picture, not yet online as of mid-January 1999)
- Johnston & Murphy Shoes (http://www.johnstonmurphy.com - Live Picture)
- Fat Face Clothiers, UK (http://www.fatface.co.uk - HP OpenPix)
- Liz Claiborne's LizGolf line can be examined by retailers before purchasing for their stores (HP OpenPix)
Flashpix Mechanics
 Illustration of layered image resolutions in Flashpix image format. Courtesy of Live Picture, Inc. |
The beauty of this system is that a special image server downloads only a small portion of the large file at a time, so that download times are measured in seconds. For example, a 192 x 256 pixel image at thumbnail resolution takes no longer to download than a 192 x 256 pixel portion of the image at the highest resolution possible. The image server utilizes ISS (Internet Imaging Protocol) to deliver just a portion of the higher resolution image, and can do this without any plug-ins whatsoever, or perhaps just a small java applet.
Image Servers
You'll need special server software to put Flashpix photos in your online store. The two leading server software developers are Live Picture, Inc. and Hewlett Packard.
The Live Picture Zoom Server (http://www.livepicture.com) provides fast serving of pictures that are viewable by any standard Web browser without a plug-in or Java applet, what they call "Universal Viewing" of their "zoom technology." They claim that their server can support twice as many simultaneous viewers as their competitor. The Professional Edition server annual license fee is based on the number of images in your catalog. $2,495 allows up to 100 images, $9,995 up to 500 images, and $19,995 for an unlimited license. The software runs on Windows NT 4.0 and Sun solaris 2.5.1+. Another option for smaller businesses is to contract with some of Live Picture's ISP hosting partners. You can serve most of your site through your current web hosting service, and your Flashpix photos through the special hosting service.
The other leading developer of this technology is Hewlett Packard, with its OpenPix ImageIgniter (http://www.image.hp.com). OpenPix requires downloading a small Java applet to view and manipulate the images, but the download time isn't objectionable. A commercial license for the OpenPix ImageIgniter is $4,995 for a single CPU. It runs on Windows NT and HP-UX with Netscape Enterprise Server (NES) platforms. HP is working on a version that will run on Solaris. OpenPix has a special relationship with iCat and Intershop to add Flashpix to their catalog-building systems.
Photo Preparation
If you're used to working with small 20K to 30K JPEG images, there's a difference with Flashpix. The key to high magnification is starting with a highly detailed original scan of a photo. If you were to scan a 3" x 5" photo at 600 dpi, for example, you'll get an image that is 1800 x 3000 pixels. This may be the right size to get enough detail at the highest magnification -- you'll have to experiment to find out. Of course, the picture "frame" that displays on the website is a small image, perhaps 150 x 250 pixels or a bit larger.
Both Adobe Photoshop 5.0 and JASC Paint Shop Pro 5.0 support the Flashpix format, but conversion may be slow, since you would be converting photo by photo. A better approach may be using Live Picture's batch converter, available as a free download.
Adam Beckerman, is a project manager, developer, and programmer at Knowledge Strategies, Inc. (http://www.kstrat.com), the company that has designed sites that include Live Picture Flashpix technology for Bloomingdales, HornyToad.com, and others. He says, "The size of high quality images causes limitations when you're preparing a large number of images, if you don't have the hardware requirements -- fast computers with a lot of RAM." He considers Live Picture's batch converter superior to the Photoshop plug in. "You can set it up, give it a directory of images, and walk away," he says.
Beckerman recommends converting TIFF images to Flashpix. "Most catalogs deal with CMYK images," he adds. "If you outsource your catalog, and that's the source of your images, you'll probably need to use a batch process to convert from CMYK to RGB mode before converting from TIFF to Flashpix." Sometimes the image resolution you get from a catalog outsourcing company isn't high enough to convert usefully to the Flashpix format (that is, if the highest magnification available isn't of real value to the customer). In that case, having them prepare larger images will slow down their production time and increase costs.
The other issue is the file size of the final Flashpix images. They can range from 1 or 2 MB up to 60 MB. They're not only slower to manipulate in a photo imaging program; they also take much more disk space on your server than average Web photos. It's a good thing hard disk space is currently cheap.
The Next Big Thing
I believe that the technology to serve Flashpix format photos on the Web is now here, and will serve images in a reasonable time with current bandwidth restraints. Those selling apparel, jewelry, and other "touchy-feely" items will want to look carefully at the possibilities. By next Christmas, you might want to have Flashpix technology in place to help you sell more effectively -- or perhaps, just to keep up with what your competitors are doing.