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Subject: Re: MAPS-L: JPEG2000 Image Servers
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]

Oops! It sounds like Joel wants me to get in touch with myself, which  is
probably not a bad idea.  I have, however, retired from my job at Stony
  Brook.

Yes, I have been engaged in a fairly extensive discussion concerning
JPEG2000 on MapHist, as some of your have doubtless noticed.  But that
discussion
has been about a somewhat different topic.

My message to Maps-L concerns people's experience with server software,
which is essential if one wants to distribute images quickly in
"packets"  for
those with slow connections.

In the course of the MapHist discussion, I discovered that it is
possible  to
view JPEG2000 images without special server software, but it takes a long
time to download the images.  If the JPEG2000 images are compressed to a
  very
high ratio (like 1:100), the download times may not be unacceptable,
although
the image quality suffers somewhat.  These images can be viewed  with any
browser equipped with a jp2 plugin, such as IrfanView or the MrSID
Express View
plugin.  This may not be a bad solution for those who do  not have
access to
the necessary server software, but it is still a second  best solution.

For those who are curious, I have set up a page with further information
at
_http://members.cox.net/dyallen/Block.htm_
(http://members.cox.net/dyallen/Block.htm) .   The page includes two
versions of a scanned  Map of New
Netherland from the  American Geographical Society Library.  One image
is compressed at 1:25
(the  default), the other at 1:100.  I would be curious to hear what people
think  about the quality of the 1:100 compression.

David Allen
La Mesa, CA




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