image-version

Use of the image-version resource is deprecated. You should use representation elements in the content-type resource instead, where possible. (In other words, you should only use image-version if you require functionality that cannot be provided using representation elements.)

The Content Engine can generate different versions of images for use in different contexts: large versions for use in articles and thumbnails for use for front page teasers, for example. The image-version resource predefines the different image versions that may be generated. The usual case is that all the versions used in a publication are down-sampled and possibly compressed from the original image. The image-version resource therefore has:

A single originalVersion element that specifies an id and a label for the original images
A version element for each down-sampled image version. These elements also specify an id and a label, plus information regarding the down-sampling operation to be performed, such as the required resolution (maxWidth and maxHeight in pixels), the required format and so on.

Here is an example image-version resource that defines two image versions, thumbnail and big.

<imageDef>
  <originalVersion id="original">
    <label>Original</label>
  </originalVersion>

  <version id="thumbnail">
    <label>Thumbnail</label>
    <maxWidth pix="75"/>
    <maxHeight pix="75"/>
    <fallback operation="skip"/>
    <format name="jpg" />
  </version>

  <version id="big">
    <label>Big</label>
    <maxWidth pix="200"/>
    <maxHeight pix="200"/>
    <fallback operation="skip"/>
    <format name="jpg" compression="0.75"/>
  </version>
</imageDef>

This resource is now partially superseded by the representation element in the content-type resource. The representation element allows you to define variants of an image that have a specified height and width. Image variants defined using the representation element do not currently offer all the functionality provided by the image-version resource, but they give increased "editor control". Representations appear as crop windows superimposed over the base image in Content Studio, which an editor can move around and resize in order to select a specific area of the image for publication.

For a full, formal description of the image-version resource format and all the things you can do with it, see image-versions.