Hey All,

I'm hoping someone has a suggestion on how to fix a problem I'm having. I created about 20 new items, added descriptions & pictures, created auction lots and uploaded them to my eBay store. When I went to look at my auctions online I noticed the formatting was wrong because my pictures were supersized. I found out that somehow in AW2K I had unchecked the resize images checkbox so the pictures were uploaded at their full original size. I went ahead and checked the resize images box and went back in AW2K and edited each of the images. Now I'm trying to figure out a easy way to update the running store listings with the new images. I can't find anyway to force an update. Any suggestions without having to cancel all 20 listings? Thanks in advance!

Well I thought I had figured it out...

I used FTP to download the LotImgxxx.jpg pictures from the Auction lots with the supersized pictures. I used PLiska to batch resize them to the size I wanted keeping the file names the same. I then uploaded the LotImgxxx.jpg files back to my AW2K folder on my web server overwriting the old files. I went back on eBay and viewed the listings only to find that the lower quality resolution images were being streatched to the same dimensions as the previous images with the final result looking very bad. Ut Oh... What now?

Hi:
The easiest way to fix the problem (one all of us has had at one time or another) --- fix the pix in AW2K. Make sure you've checked what you want and everything is OK. Just as if you are ready to upload. Then check the box to make the auction lots OFF LINE. Then on each lot click it to queue for listing. Then click on upload auctions for that profile just as if they have never been uploaded or listed. Click ok for it to upload the pictures. THEN when it gets to the part where you upload the auction itself to eBay CANCEL OUT. Go to each auction and put it on line in the check box at the top. Now you have uploaded the correct photo for each page. Go to your eBay page and all should be OK. If for some reason the photo name changed you will have to edit that in eBay. However, you should be good to go without having to do that. Hope this helps.

Garry

HI,

Yep, I've done that too Been there, done that Garry's remedy is the way to go.

Let us know if you need more help.

Judy/blue

Hi,

I know this is a bit late as far as the images you have uploaded now but something you might consider doing to all your images in terms of editing, is to always resize all images and shrink all images by factor 2. It will save space on your hard drive and in the AW2K image folder as well.

Just a thought.

Judy/blue

Thanks Garry for your help. It worked like a charm.

Hi Judy, I took your advice and started resizing and shrinking my images by a factor of 2. After reading more in the forums, I discovered that there is a 2 GB limit in AW2K so I will need to watch how I store them in AW2K. Thanks!
Larry

Larry:

Glad it worked for you. Every once and a while all of us get caught like that and have to fix up a pix or two. As far as I know it is the easiest way to do it and not have to canx the auction and relist it. That choice is usually unacceptable in that you now have an additional eBay listing charge.

Judy's comment on the size is also good advice. Anyone with large photos should take that recommendation to heart. At the very minimum it saves server space where ever you upload images.

Garry

Larry,

You are correct. There is a 2GB image folder. Shrinking by factor 2 will decrease the image size enough that you will be able to have thousands of Inventory Items with multiple images.

Keep in mind images are not duplicated when you create an Auction lot from an Inventory Item. There is a reference made to the original image, not a copy. That reserves spacein the image folder. That 2GB folder holds more than you think but it is a good idea to get into the habit of resizing and shrink by factor 2.

Judy/blue

Larry & Judy:
This information may very well be a repeat of stuff you already know. If so just nevermind

Images that you scan have several obvious choices. Many times people will scan an image on their home scanner and do it at 300 or even greater dpi - thinking the bigger the number the better looking the pix will be. If the image is only to be used for display on a computer then you have increased the size of your image unnecessarily by using such a large DPI. Remember, the computer's monitor can only display 72/75 dpi. With that in mind you will notice that the image file size (that amount of space taken up on the hard drive and eventually your or the eBay server) will change dramaticaly depending on scanning resolution. Here is an example:

A 3x5 Image scanned at 100% using True Color at:

1200 DPI = 63.4mb
600 DPI = 15.8mb
300 DPI = 4.0mb
200 DPI = 1.8mb
150 DPI = 990.2kb
100 DPI = 440.1kb
75 DPI = 247.5kb

With those numbers you can see that it only makes sense to use either 75 or 100 DPI. Actually I find that with AW2K 100 works very well. However, all rules are made to be broken. There may very well be times when you want a larger DPI especially if you think it may be used at a later time in a brochure or some type of printed piece. Even in that case it is best to scan the image twice as long as it is available. One scan for eBay and another to be put aside for use later by the printer when they are doing your brochure.

If you are going to go to a commercial printer with your image remember that DPI should be in the 300 range for good reproduction. A rule of thumb is find out what line screen the printer will be using (i.e. 150) and double that for your DPI.

If you use a JPG image another thing to remember is that you should use the NO LOSS setting. And even if you do that, every time you resave that image there will be some loss in quality. It is best then to do all of your editing and resizing and fiddling in as few saves as possible - this will give the best of all possible images. When a jpg is saved a few pixels are thrown out with every save. Early on it isn't noticable yet as more saves are done it can be seen in loss of quality.

Sorry -- I sure didn't mean to go on and on but thought that as long as we were talking about images that this may be useful. If there are other questions let me know. I've left out a few hints 'cause it was beginning to sound a lot pompus lol - so let's quit while I'm ahead.

Garry

Garry,

No apology. That information needs to be posted for everyone. Images and sizes is always a highly discussed subject. And newbies often need help. Now they can search the forums and have really good information pull up.

And even though I understand the image thing, I'll refer back to this as images are "not my thing" I leave the photograph thing to my daughter in law, she's the photographer. And she tells me what settings to use and what to do. I set the camera to where she says and leave that thing alone

Now if you ask me about horses, I can help you with that

Judy/blue

Thanks Garry, this is good information. I wasn't aware of the JPG loss of quality. I'm learning a lot from you pro's.

Larry:

I'm happy that the information was helpful to you. A lot of people don't realize that each time they save a JPG they have cut a tiny bit of the quality away. That is why it is so important to do as much of the editing as possible in one session and then save. Also it is a good idea (if space is available) to save the reworked image under a new name and keep the original scan under another name. That way if major work has to be done you can go back to the original and still have the best JPG available to use.

I'm wondering if it would be helpful to put together a downloadable PDF booklet on Images, Scanning, editing etc for web and print use. If anyone thinks it is something that may be useful we should try to get it produced and available to AW2K people.

Garry

Garry,

YES!!! I think that is an excellent idea. The more information we can get our hands on the more likely we are to be successful in our online Auction businesses. And sharing with fellow AW2K users is just the ticket.

Judy/blue

Judy:

I can begin working on something in a day or so. It should include digital camera images as well as images coming from a scanner and those that are downloaded "borrowed" from the internet.

I'll work on a draft and put it up where anyone interested can get to it and then leave their comments. That sound OK? Also if anyone has an idea of an outline or anything to be included let me know

Garry

Garry,

That is a wonderful idea! You are a gem. But then maybe I am partial. Just don't tell anyone

I have a small bit of image information. As I said Images are not my forte. I know the basics and can use the AW2K image editor frontwards and backwards. But boy howdy, the scanning images into my computer, well -'taint happen' vern. Of course, it might help if I had a scanner. I do have 4 digital cameras though. Does that count?

Judy/blue

Judy:
The digital cameras are really scanners. The 'puter sees them the same way. I would advise using some FREE software called Ifranview http://www.irfanview.com also while there download the plugins.

I'll take care of that in the PDF but it is a great way to download the pix from a digital camera and do some preliminary work on them. So either a scanner, or a Digital Camera or "borrowed" images from the internet are all ways that images may be obtained for AW2K and each of them can be optimized for the best results visually as well as not taking up TONS of room on a server.

Garry

Garry,

I have to use removeable media in order to load images into AW2K. I do not use the camera cabling. Reason being, several staff members share a single camera. SD cards are much cheaper than buying a camera for every workstation. Although, I sure would like to have another Nikon D50. Oh yes I would!

My staff adds the images directly into AW2K. The images are edited in AW2K. I have my camera settings selected to the standard or lowest resolution. Same resolution suitable for sending images in an email or web design. I'd have to look at again to see what the DPI is. I don't remember off the top of my head.

But I will check out the software! A couple of my seller friends at Overstock were just talking about the Iframview software the other day and were wondering if anyone had used it. I'll tell them I know someone who has {smile]

Judy/blue

Garry,

That would be great and very useful to us AW2K users. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

Larry

Another great program to handle image files is the free Google Image program Picasa2. I use removeable media from my camera and put it in my printer media slot. Picasa2 automatically downloads the media into folders of my choice. It will find existing media on your computer, you can view, edit, share and more. I like it because it is easy to use and does a great job.
http://picasa.google.com/

Hi,

Are you deleting those images off your hard drive after you add them into AW2K?

Judy/blue

Larry:
Thanks for the encouragement. I'm working on the wording etc. now and in a few days it should be ready to post. I hope that it is helpful to those that are having problems and or questions with images.

Garry

Larry:

I'm a google-fan and have been since it started in beta way back when. I've also used Picasa and find it very useful. I use it to keep track of all of the various images used and rejected for our First Day Cover production process. If an image was even considered for a FDC then it is in the Picasa database. Prior to that they all just lived in a huge directory and obviously some were "lost" forever. Now, even those that deserve to be lost are still available.

Garry

Judy:
You were asking Larry about image storage and archiving.

Here is what my workflow is like. I have a 200 gig USB removable hard drive that hangs off of the server. All images for AW2K go there. All images live there and that is a permanent home for it, unless it is an image of something that is rather ordinary.

At first I would delete the image off of the hard drive once it was put into AW2K and or after the auction had closed with a sale. The only problem was that if the item came back into stock I was spending time rescanning. So that process evolved into the system I use now. The 200 Gig hard drive will hold a ton of images for me and maybe it is the hoarding gene in me I find that it makes sense to keep them. Some have been archived onto CD's. An example would be 100's of stamps from some obscure country that I probably will never be using again - they are archived onto CD or DVD and removed from the hard drive. However, if it is an easily obtainable image or one that can be quickly scanned again if necessary it may be deleted totally from everything. All images go into specific directories (in my case country name) and each image is stored by its catalog number. This makes it easy to find the image if it is ever needed again. Because the drive is on the server it is part of the wireless network. So if I'm lazy I can work a brochure or sale list on the laptop from the family room and still use images that originally were used in aw2k.

Confusing huh? The short answer is that all images ever used for aw2K go to the Image Retirement Home on an external drive.

Garry

Garry,

That was my question. I am considering doing the same thing as I have ran into the same issue. I'll get rid of images and archive records, then the item pops back in and we are taking images again. I have seriously considered adding an external hard drive to my server just to move images to prior to archiving records. That's why I was poking to find out if Larry was deleting or moving images somewhere else after added to the AW2K database

Judy/blue

Judy:
The external hard drives available right now are really inexpensive - the images get a very cheap retirement home. Just to clarify what I said earlier - when the image is scanned it goes right away to that drive. When I'm doing the item in aw2k I go to that drive to find the image to put it into aw2k. So there is never any moving etc of images. From the get go they are on the external drive.

I might need a bit more explaination though -- you have to remember that I'm doing postage stamps -- however, the process could very well be the same for any type of item for sale. The stamps are placed on a flat bed scanner in a protective holder and scanned - sometimes up to 40 or 50 at a time. I then have software that will "cut" them apart. That first scan goes in a "rawimage" directory on the hard drive under the country name. Once the images are cut apart and are ready for placing on an auction page they are saved with the catalog number on the outboard hard drive.

When the auction is over there is no need to move any images as they are already at home on the external drive. This cuts down on moving and or forgetting to move. It also gives me only one place to find images. If it ain't there it just ain't. In your case where you have more than one person working on aw2k it would be easier for them to locate images.

Garry

Garry,

Thanks for clarifying. I understood you loaded images directly into the external hard drive. My challenge is staff. Each staff member takes their own images and the images are stored on the removable media, then loaded into AW2K. When the 1GB SD cards are full, we just re-format them. But there have been numerous times the original images would have been extremely handy.

I organize my staff's work in the Inventory Items by assigning them Inventory Item number I have created. For instance, one of my girls is currently working on Inventory Item number 9200 to 9300. And she is working on one product line--pet supplies. so I could create a folder on the external hard drive for that staff member's Inventory Item number and product line and the subcategory the images into types. Chews, tack, etc. Prior to dumping the full SD card, they could move all the images to the external hard drive. Or that is what I have been considering doing anyway

Judy/blue

Judy:

I think you have a good idea. Create the item number as a main directory on the hard drive i.e. - 9200-9300. Then your staff person would immediatly dump all images from the SD Camera Card to that directory. They then would work off from that drive to do all of their work. Also if there was a ton of work on a particular set of images they could be assigned to two or more people and everyone would have access to images.

There then would not be an awful OOPS later on where someone forgot to dump images. In fact images could be dumped even before your person started to work on 9200-9300. The work flow could be that once the SD card was full someone would just dump it to the external drive. Then when the assignments were made images would already be there for them to begin work.

Garry

Garry,

My workflow is arranged a bit differently. And I have been seriously considering re-doing how my staff works trying to find the most efficient method. How they work right now has become fairly efficient. I moved the photographic center right next to their workstations. And re-configured all the computer workstations in a small square cube so everything they need is within almost an arm's reach. Stocking product in the Storage locations has become a challenge. And I am fixin' to change that method to take less time putting product after entered into AW2K.

Things to do, things to do. Never ending is it??

If only I could get about 4 more of the 2 girls I have in the back now. They are sisters. And my word in the morning can they ever put in the Inventory Items. They match each other stride for stride averaging somewhere between 75 to 85 individual items per day---each. All that while also stocking their own product in the appropriate Storage locations. pulling orders, answering the phone as well as dealing with buyer inquiries. They are about to work me to the bone proofing work. Thankfully they rarely if ever make mistakes.

Now I am tired. Need more coffee

Judy/blue