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Create an image thumbnail from a constantly changing image source

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Sep 22.2008

Hi guys, I’d like to create a image thumbnail for a custom home page I’m creating, but my problems are 1) I don’t know how to create image thumbnails, and 2) most importantly, my image source changes daily.

I’d like to make a thumbnail out of whatever the image from [url]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html[/url] or the Astronomy Picture of the Day is. I’d like to then be able to keep the image’s proportions, but shrink it down to a general value that would be appropriate for my home page. I understand the image always changes in size too, and would like to possibly shrink whatever that image is by a percentage. Is this possible? In the end this thumbnail will be a hyperlink to APOD’s page.

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@BlackReefDesignSep 24.2008 — If you have Photoshop CS3, it can automatically generate an image viewer with thumbnails...

File>Automate>Web Photo Gallery
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@jason102authorSep 24.2008 — Sorry but I don't have Photoshop. I have the Gimp for Linux but even then how does this relate to create a thumbnail image for a web page I'm creating? I'm creating my own custom home page, with many different images as hyperlinks spread across the page. I want to transform the APOD constantly changing image to be one of these hyperlinks.

Any other ideas? Also, what language would I type this up in? CSS, HTML, what?
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@FangSep 24.2008 — Simplest is to download the image daily, although you would require written permission to do this.

A little pointless then ...
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@jason102authorSep 24.2008 — Yeah, but this is for my PERSONAL use. I've said it on each of my posts so far - I'm making a custom home page for MYSELF. Surely I don't need permission for that?

So you're saying the best way to do this would be to have my home page run some sort of script that downloads the daily image to my local computer and then have the code generate a thumbnail of this? That seems like a long way to solve my problem when I could have code to simply reference it from the page and place it straight on my web page? For instance, how does Google Images create the image previews/thumbnails?
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@FangSep 24.2008 — I'm making a custom home page for MYSELF[/QUOTE]So you're not putting it on the internet? See what can happen: http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=191918

You could probably do it using cURL and one of these methods of image processing.
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@MaydaySep 24.2008 — The answer to your ability to post the pictures from their website onto yours can be answered by scrolling down on the APOD website's "About APOD" page: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html

"About image permissions:

All the images on the APOD page are credited to the owner or institution where they originated. Some of the images are copyrighted and to use these pictures publicly or commercially one must write to the owners for permission. For the copyrighted images, the copyright owner is identified in the APOD credit line (please see the caption under the image), along with a hyperlink to the owner's location. NASA images are in the public domain, official guidelines for their use can be found here. For images credited to other owners/institutions, please contact them directly for copyright and permissions questions.

Neither NASA nor APOD can grant permission to use copyrighted images. For use of these images, please write to the copyright owners. "
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@jason102authorSep 25.2008 — Yes, this is NOT going to be put on the Internet for the public. It will be private and only on my home computer. Again, I'm making a custom home page for myself that loads from an html file stored on my computer only.

Fang, thanks for your links regarding my problem of image thumbnails. I'll check them out. In the meantime, any more suggestions will be appreciated!

Before you post: This is for my own personal private use! I do not intend to publish any of this thumbnail business publicly on the Internet!
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