Can I use Zenphoto as a repository for fullsize pictures

Semiocity

Dear all,

I'm back, still considering using Zenphoto in the future. For the moment, I'm building my online gallery with Piwigo. And it's great but I know that at some point I will have to create a separate blog and that kind of bugs. I have a question though: what I love with Piwigo is the possibility to use my gallery as backup/repository where I upload fullsize (16MP) jpeg exports of my best pictures. Is it something I could do with Zenphoto?

acrylian

Theoretical yes as Zenphoto itself has no limits and the gallery's albums are entirely file system based (folder with images and/or further folders = album). But practically you will need a quite powerful server to handle such huge 16MP images:
http://www.zenphoto.org/news/problems-with-albums-and-images

Or you need to create a theme that never uses resized images which will probably be no fun for visitors.

Semiocity

What about precaching?
This is the ind of performance I'm currently getting with the gallery system I use. These are all 16MP images.
http://gregorydziedzic.com/photos/

Could I get similar performances with Zenphoto?

acrylian

Yes, generally possible of course, once the resized images are cached. But the workload for the server is the same no matter if via precaching nor not. If I am not mistaken Piwigo does create some predefined sizes on upload. Zenphoto does not because themes are largely free to request individual sizes.

Info about caching on Zenphoto:
http://www.zenphoto.org/news/caching

plg

Hi

> If I am not mistaken Piwigo does create some
> predefined sizes on upload.

It depends how you upload your photos. With the HTML upload form, Piwigo creates the "thumbnail". Then Piwigo generates other sizes "on demand" and put them in cache.

Piwigo also has some "custom sizes" which can be requested by themes or plugins. For example on http://gregorydziedzic.com/photos/index.php?/category/24 the plugin GThumb+ asks for a "300px high" custom size.

I fully agree with acrylian: Piwigo and Zenphoto will rely on cpu of your server. If you have a slow CPU on your server, generating "multiple sizes" from a 16MP photo will produce high load. 10 years ago maybe it could have been a problem. Today I think it's not a problem anymore.

-- Pierrick (Piwigo core team)

acrylian

Thanks for chiming in, Pierrick. I think it really depends on the web space plan used as some shared hosts I know certainly will not really handle 16MP images. Mostly because of memory issues and not directly server power itself.

@Semiocity: I guess if you have that many and big images you probably indeed have a server powerful enough already. Best give it a try with a test install and one album or so.