From July 1st Domain.com.au will be placing some new rules in relation to listings on the Domain.com.au. These new rules govern the way photos are uploaded to the real estate portal. Below is the email sent out to all clients.
I agree with most of the changes, however it seems they are becoming closely aligned to the way REA do things and I still cannot understand why Floor Plans have to be in a GIF format. Aside from more images being uploaded (long overdue) it also seems that the old portrait (longer in height) are finding that they throw the design of the websites property page out of whack. So from July first real estate agents and their photographers can no longer feel like a pro and tip the camera to one side.
Personally designing websites to accommodate these types of images makes the pages look unprofessional and in my opinion it will be a good thing.
Dear Client,
In response to the number one request from our users to provide more high quality images, we recently increased the number of images that can be uploaded to 27 images per listing. Now, we are seeking to improve the quality of these images to provide the optimal experience for our users.
Poor quality images can reflect badly on your agency so it’s important you follow these guidelines:
New specifications:
Images of the property must be in JPG format
Floor plans must be in GIF format
All images must be 800 x 600 pixels
All images must be a resolution of 72dpi
Size ratio should be 4:3. Other size ratios may appear distorted
The first image you submit will be the main image and used as the thumbnail on the search results page
Portrait images are acceptable but cannot be the main image
Up to 27 images are permittedFrom 1 July 2007 any images that do not satisfy these specifications, or appear pixelated or distorted, may be rejected.
Kind regards,
The Domain.com.au team
3 Comments
Philip Muscatello
It would be good to also get some specs on incorporating videos in domain listings
Paul D
As an agent who uses floorplans, I have found that jpeg floorplans are nowhere near as clear as gif format. This is a simple fact of life and I believe Domain have made the right choice here. REA have been using gif format in floorplans for years.
Jon May
A discussion on the aspect ratio of images (eg 4:3…800 x 600)has been simmering at the flikr “Phtotgraphy for Real Estate” discussion forum. With the popularity of digital cameras, 4:3 is really an archaic format inherited from the dimensions of a 35mm negative. I don’t know that any digital cameras produce images with that aspect ratio. They are usually wider…a 600px high photo from my D70 would be 903 px wide, meaning that some width has to be lost in cropping the image back to 800 px wide. If not cropped, the image is smooshed (a technical term!) into a 4:3 container with resulting distortion.
Regarding floor plans, such grayscale (no colour content) images will compress to much smaller file sizes as gifs compared to jpgs. That’s the gif advantage in this case.