Splitting off from #371374-49: Add ImageCache UI Core:

The word "preset" is a weird Drupalism and isn't at all descriptive of what it is: a group of image manipulations such as "rotate", "crop", etc. that are weighted and applied to a single image. This shows up in several user-facing places. For example:

- In the administrative interface, there's a UI for "Create image ____."
- In the user admin settings, there's a setting to "Choose the image ____ for user pictures."
- In the theme, there's a function called theme_image_XXXX() (in contrast theme_image())
- The transformed image file paths will have a files/______/name/xxx.png

Comments

keith.smith’s picture

In Photoshop, isn't the individual components (like rotate or crop) called a "step" and multiple steps are recorded into "actions" that are replayed to process an image?

Unfortunately, actions are already taken.

What about script or image script? Surely that wouldn't confused with PHP script, etc?

dman’s picture

So far, the suggestion from eojthebrave for operation has been the most accurate.
I'm comfortable with an "operation" being the name for a sequence of individual actions.

Depending on the way you use language, it's also grammatical to say "an action is a sequence of individual operations"... so I don't think there is any automatic English definition for what we want to say.
The former, with operations being larger than actions, sounds logical to me. After all, it's got extra syllables - must be more complex.

Hm. Looking at a thesaurus - "sequence"? Nah, too esoteric, and implies timed duration. If I sequenced an image I'd expect an animation or a slideshow.

... I never knew that preset wasn't a word :-}. Should be!

webchick’s picture

Well preset is a word, it just doesn't mean anything remotely like what is being described here.

If you ask an average person (and please do!!) to label a select box with the following values:

- 100x100 Thumbnail
- Greyscale
- Album Cover

I sincerely doubt that "preset" would be the first (or even 50th) word that would come to mind. ;)

I asked Twitter what they thought and so far "Image Transformation" seems to be the winner. It's still a bit heavy, but at least it's not cryptic.

Damien Tournoud’s picture

I suggest "image derivative".

dman’s picture

Not remotely like?
define:preset

A saved group of settings that can be applied to a sequence when it is created. Presets determine items such as frame rate, editing timebase, and ...
www.brynmawr.edu/filmstudies/documents/Glossary.html

This feature lets a person pre-determine, through a user-friendly interface, the quantity of coffee desired, such as a single or double shot of ...
www.my-best-coffee.com/espresso-machine-glossary.html

A collection of system settings stored in a memory that is virtually instantly recallable, typically at the touch of a button.
www.poweracoustik.com/SUPPORT/installation/glossaryofterms.html

Sorta fits OK with me. None of the 20 other alternatives contratict those 3 either - only in the difference between verb (more common) and noun (as used here)

To knock it right down to laymans/average terms, I'd use the word 'version'. You can choose the big version, the thumbnail version, the framed version, the black&white version.
However, that's overloaded also, and can't work alongside code :-/

catch’s picture

'Image derivative' sounds good to me - describes the result of the preset, not what it is, but still works when adding a collection of actions. You'd also be flushing derivatives instead of flushing presets (or transformations) - which is much more accurate.

Would also be acceptable in file paths files/imagecache/derivative/thumb/some-pic.png

eojthebrave’s picture

For what it's worth I posed this question to some friends last night. I wrote a list similar to webchick's list above and framed the question by explaining that they were working with a tool that allowed them to post content to their website, including text, images, etc and were now trying to configure the way that the content was displayed. They where being presented with a form that allowed them to choose things like what to display, where, and when and that the display options for the image content included a select list with the following items.

I then asked them what an informative label for that list would be. The responses I got where.

  • photo editing options
  • image preferences
  • image settings
  • image options
  • image choices
  • image formats

Along with a few much wordier responses.

The group consisted of people with a varying level of experience with computers and web technologies, though no one that I would consider an expert. At most a few of them had experience using Wordpress.

egfrith’s picture

"derivative" sounds accurate to me too, and it fits in with existing terminology. My only criticism is that it's perhaps a bit technical-sounding.

The most natural-sounding thing I can think of is "style":

- administrative interface UI: "Create image style."
- user admin settings: "Choose the image style for user pictures."
- Theme function: theme_image_style() (in contrast theme_image())
- Transformed image file paths: files/image-style/name/xxx.png
- "Flush styled images"

But of course this is overloaded with CSS styles...

webchick’s picture

Wow, I really like "style." It's overloaded but only for technical people.

drewish’s picture

i like image transformation as the user facing label but transformations as the internal type/variable names.

drewish’s picture

i like image transformation as the user facing label but transformations as the internal type/variable names.

quicksketch’s picture

Status: Active » Fixed

After further discussions in IRC (mostly a bunch of opinions), style it is: #491456-47: ImageCache preset API.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.