Now you're really getting to the core issue, which is to have the alternative for no resize-compression within the parameters...but that is not what I've been hearing here regarding the bad quality images etc...if you start out with a larger image, and compensate for the quality loss that accompanies re-sizing and compression, you'll have a better end result...but 100% quality does not = no re-sized images...I am offering solutions, and I am trying to help people understand about jpg compression...so when you say "The software is clearly ignoring the global parameters"...this is simply not true...you are not understanding what the parameters mean and what happens to your image.
Your call for someone fixing this is out of line. Maybe you should head up a development team, spend a couple of years working on your own "K2XL", then you can have it your way.

Alright Michael, because I find you so truly annoying, I decided to take the time to look through the files and fix the problem (rather than just run my mouth like you have been). First, I can understand why the K2 development team may not have replied to my original inquiry --- they didn't write the upload class that is used to handle file uploads. It was originally written by Colin Verot at www.verot.net. That's not to discredit the K2 team because I use established libraries whenever I can during development too. It saves time and time is money. The good news is that Colin took the time to document the usage of his library VERY well to assist developers in understanding and implementing it correctly (Thank You Colin). If only Michael were half as helpful...

To all that have run into this problem, here is the fix:
- Open the category.php file located in your \administrator\components\com_k2\models folder.
- Go down to line #67
- After line line #67, add this line of code:
$handle->jpeg_quality = $params->get('imagesQuality');
- Save and upload.

Adding that line of code will set the quality of the uploaded category images to whatever you have specified the quality should be under the K2 parameters.

The problem (Michael) is that the K2 developers did not set the quality of the upload to the quality set in the parameters. And by not doing that, it defaulted to the library preset of 85% which is why we were all seeing artifacts in the uploaded images.

So, as you can see Michael:
1. The K2 developers WERE to blame as this was clearly an oversight (it was setup this way for item uploads btw, I made sure of it after fixing this code)
2. I actually am the head of a development team at an advertising agency and we actually have deployed our own CMS which most of our clients use. However some specifically request Joomla and we work with the best tools available when we have to use it. K2 is still the best at what it does IMO.
3. Michael, let me know if you need any help installing purchased templates in the future. I saw you were having some trouble in your other threads. I have experience coding Joomla templates from scratch and can probably help you. : P

Now who was out of line? I will be anxiously awaiting your reply. LOL!

Just as a note, I have submitted a bug report to Joomlaworks in hopes that this fix gets added to the next release of the K2 core. This would keep us from having to update the file in future releases.

Hope this helps guys!

Thank you so much for your help! I already implemented the changes and the images are rendering perfectly now.

Thx for the fix K2x, as I'm sure you know there are several of these minor little oversights, just reading through the css will give you a few misspelled classes but when you take into account the shear size of K2 these little annoyances are at least tolerable when the issues are discovered and fixed buy those capable community members like yourself :D

Now if we could just bypass it completely when we have done all the work ourselves and already have the perfect quality, perfect size image as you mentioned ...
K2x said:~~ ALL THAT STUFF YOU SAID UP THERE DOESN'T NEED REPEATING HERE ~~

To all that have run into this problem, here is the fix: - Open the category.php file located in your \administrator\components\com_k2\models folder. - Go down to line #67 - After line line #67, add this line of code:
$handle->jpeg_quality = $params->get('imagesQuality');
- Save and upload.

~~ THAT IS ACTUALLY WORTH REPEATING A FEW TIMES :P ~~

K2x...thanks for the snippet. Is that good for 2.4.1?

I tested this code on the website that this post was originally made about nearly a year ago and that site has not been upgraded yet but will be next month. We still need to setup a sandbox to test the upgrades first (I never install updates on a live site) and the site in reference is quite extensive and large so we just haven't had a chance yet to setup a fully functional sandbox. I would be very surprised though if that code changed at all between 2.3 and 2.4 because the upload class/library is used throughout K2.

Perhaps someone else can confirm that has upgraded to 2.4?

michael neese said:K2x...thanks for the snippet. Is that good for 2.4.1?

Looks good to me in 2.4.1...here are some examples, loaded after the code change...

www.jwcooper.net/our-products/itemlist/category/6-buckles.html

Excellent - thanks for testing that Michael. Those images looks great (and crisp as they should)!! I also received an email from Joomlaworks today and they said they would verify the bug fix and implement into the 2.5 release.

That's great news, I was hoping it wouldn't turn out to be something we had to *fix* with each new release :D

K2x said:Excellent - thanks for testing that Michael. Those images looks great (and crisp as they should)!! I also received an email from Joomlaworks today and they said they would verify the bug fix and implement into the 2.5 release.