Thumbnails

[JBD1030]

I was wondering if there's a way to load a thumbnail of any pic without having to first load the whole picture in its regular size.

Right now, I'm using XML with AS3 to load about 30 pictures, each 1000x600 in size, and then I make them DisplayObjects and change their size to 50x50. It would be a HUGE help if I could just load a smaller version of each one so that it takes up a lot less bandwidth and a lot less time to load. Thanks.

[kmintmier]

The thumbnails will need to exist in the desired size before they're downloaded. If the images won't change often, you can create the thumbnails yourself with an image editor. If you need a more dynamic solution, there are some good server-side solutions. For example, there are add-ons for both PHP and ASP.NET that can resize images and create thumbnails on the fly. Some of them are even smart enough to cache the thumbnails so they're only re-created if the timestamp of the full-size image changes. Google is your friend on this one. Just search for an open-source solution that fits your platform.

There are likely lots of solutions, probably even some from Adobe that I'm not aware of yet. Anyone else want to chime in?