My Thoughts on the Presentation of This Blog Part 2

I am not a perfectionist in my most situations, but when it comes to this blog, I strive to approach perfection as long as it doesn't feel overhwelming and drive me myself crazy.

This blog did not start out with the most aesthetically pleasing layout. The background color was orange (my favorite color), and the images were not centered, and I was too satisfied with whatever crappy image I could find as long as the guy was hot. But as I continued to hone this craft by studying the layouts of the most aesthetically pleasing blogs, and looking through all the options this program provided, I became more and more sure of what I deemed to be the best way to display images of beautiful men: BIG and BOLD!

Being big and bold meant of course delivering the best possible version of any image, but the restrictions set by this blogging system hindered this process in many ways. Large images are automatically resized to a width and/or height of 1600 pixels maximum. Also, the maximum display width of an image is 640 pixels (as you can see from the above pic)

Over the years, this program has become harder and harder to use. Once upon a time, I could just drag the corner of an image to resize it. Now I have to alter the html by calculating the ratio of the original image, and resizing it with the correct ratio in order for the image to still look 'right'. Luckily, I'm good with math...so that isn't hard...it just takes more time than I want.

So what does that process look like?

Well, here are two images I want to put side by side.

The first step is to get rid of the space in between, which means I have to delete the html code that automatically added the space when I uploaded the picture. (This stupid line of code was never there a few years ago!)

Now some folks might be satisfied with the way those two images look above, and I would be too on lazy days. But of course I want to maximize the usage of all the space allowed, so I have to change the html code to do so...

I could simply change the width so that each image is 320 pixels wide...

But of course that would result in a stretched out image...

So I also have to adjust the height with the correct ratio so the image looks 'right'.

But notice how blurry the images look above? (This is another frustrating obstacle blogger recently added). Which means I have to modify more code to adjust the clarity...

Anyhow, I hope you have a greater appreciation for my process of trying to present the images in the best way possible. And if you have tricks of the trade and tips to make this task easier, please comment below. Or just comment even if you don't have any tip.

My thoughts on the presentation of this blog shall continue on Thursday...