With Deep Zoom Composer, you can take a collection of images of various resolutions—including large, high-resolution images—and arrange them into a composition that you can publish online. Viewers using a standard broadband connection can quickly display and navigate the high-resolution images that might otherwise be extremely slow to view.
There are many things you can do with Deep Zoom Composer, from artistic applications, such as complex photo mosaics, to business applications, such as photo galleries for real estate sites. Here are just a few potential uses:
- Mapping
- Photo galleries
- Online banner ads
- High-resolution photos
- Visual catalogs
- 3D photography
Deep Zoom Composer uses the Deep Zoom technology found in both Microsoft Silverlight 2 and Seadragon Ajax. When you view an image created in Deep Zoom Composer in a browser, the browser downloads only the portion of the image that you are actually viewing on your screen at that time, and at a resolution appropriate to the scale of the image. Downloading only part of the image data at a time decreases the time it takes to load the image and optimizes the viewing experience.
Deep Zoom and Hard Rock Café’s Memorabilia
Since pictures do say more than a thousand words, the easiest way to explain Deep Zoom is with a real world example, check out Hard Rock Café International’s Memorabilia application at http://memorabilia.hardrock.com.
Figure 1. Memorabilia, from HardRock Café International.
On the left hand-side, Memorabilia composes several lower resolution images to create a very large depth in the post-stamp for the letter. On the center, memorabilia stitches several high resolution images to create an incredible amount of detail on the guitar –you can zoom in to see the scratches and actual finger prints.
More Resources
Want to learn more? Check out these other resources.
- DeepZoom Team Blog
- Visual Story Telling with Deep Zoom Composer – No more low-resolution images
- Show Large Images with Deep Zoom Composer – Video Tour (Digital Inspiration)
- How To: Create a DeepZoom Photo Album (MaximumPC)
- The Progress and the Promise of DeepZoom (RIA Development Center)