DC 6.0 Formats - Highlighted features

Most format parameters should be self-explanatory or explained by hovering the small question mark symbols. This page highlights some of the main format parameters and supported features.

Size

An image or a video format such as webp, png, jpeg, mov, and mp4 can be configured with different parameters related to size. These parameters can be divided into three subcategories:

  1. Cropping (image formats only).

  2. Resizing.

  3. Background size.

Renditions are always created by first cropping, then resizing, and lastly, applying a background. However, each of these three steps is optional.

Cropping

Basic cropping can be configured for an image. If at least one of the “Crop width” and “Crop height” parameters is 0, renditions of the format are not cropped. Otherwise, input files are cropped based on the given “Crop position”.

Resizing

The resizing of an image or video format can be configured with the “Width”, “Height”, and “ResizeMode” parameters. For all resize modes, the size of the input is preserved if both width and height are 0. For the other resize modes, the width and height parameters have the following meaning:

  • Fixed: The specified width and height are used directly.

    • If both the width and height are larger than zero, generated renditions have exactly this size, ignoring the original aspect ratio.

    • If the width is 0 and the height is larger than 0, generated renditions have exactly the specified height, and the width is calculated to preserve the aspect ratio of the input.

    • If the width is larger than 0 and the height is 0, generated renditions have exactly the specified width, and the height is calculated to preserve the aspect ratio of the input.

  • MinimumSize: The specified width and height are interpreted as minimum values, ensuring that the generated rendition has at least these dimensions while preserving the aspect ratio of the input.

    • If a width of 0 is specified, the width is calculated based on the input's height and aspect ratio.

    • If a height of 0 is specified, the height is calculated based on the input's width and aspect ratio.

  • MaximumSize: The specified width and height are interpreted as maximum values, ensuring that the generated rendition has at most these dimensions, while preserving the aspect ratio of the input.

    • If a width of 0 is specified, the width is calculated based on the input's height and aspect ratio.

    • If a height of 0 is specified, the height is calculated based on the input's width and aspect ratio.

Background

The background of an image or a video format can be configured with the “Background width”, “Background height”, and “Background color” parameters. No background will be applied if the background width and height are both 0.

If the background width is larger than 0, renditions of the format will always have at least this width. If the image or video has a smaller width than the background width after the resizing step, a background with the configured background color will be added to produce a rendition with the configured background width. Otherwise, if the image or video has a larger width than the background width after the resizing step, no background is applied.

A similar logic is applied for the background height.

 

As an example, consider a format with the following parameters:

  • “Width”: 500

  • “Height”: 500

  • “ResizeMode”: MaximumSize

  • “Background width”: 500

  • “Background height”: 500

  • “Background color”: #FFFFFF

With these parameters, an input file will first be resized to fit within a 500x500 pixel box while preserving the aspect ratio of the input file. Then, a white background (#FFFFFF) will be applied to ensure that the produced rendition has a size of exactly 500x500. Thus, the input file has been resized to a 500x500 pixel output while preserving the aspect ratio.

 

Watermarks

For an image format, it is possible to ensure that the renditions of the format are always watermarked.

image-20240229-091714.png

Descriptions of the parameters can be seen by hovering over the small question mark symbols.

If the “Watermark coverage percentage” option is used, please be aware of the limitations in how the coverage percentage is calculated. In particular, this option most likely only makes sense when used in combination with size parameters to ensure that the watermark fits within the produced rendition.

Video thumbnails

By default, the first frame of a video is used when extracting a thumbnail for a video. However, the FrameAccurateThumbnail metafield can be set to use a different frame to use for video thumbnails. If an asset has a valid timestamp value in the format hh:mm:ss(.fff) (where .fff can be omitted) in the FrameAccurateThumbnail metafield, the frame at this timestamp is used when extracting a thumbnail.

If a thumbnail has already been generated for a video and the FrameAccurateThumbnail metafield value is then changed, the thumbnail is not re-generated. To do this, an automation that uses the “Generate asset renditions” step with the “Force generate” flag enabled must be created, ensuring that the thumbnails are re-generated when the FrameAccurateThumbnail metafield value of an asset changes.

The OOBE configuration layer has an automation that ensures that the default and large thumbnails are re-generated when the FrameAccurateThumbnail metafield value changes. For other formats this re-generation must be set up manually.