Nerd mode
Nerd facts
Gerdsken - Beachfront panorama
How this page delivers zoom and photo.
Now loaded
Open a media view to see what it used.
Deep zoom
Deep zoom is for giant still images. The image is cut into tiles, and the viewer loads the visible pieces at the zoom level you need.
That keeps huge stitches inspectable without making normal browsing pay the full cost.
Deep Zoom · DZI in OpenSeadragon
Photos
The page starts with the smallest useful image, then upgrades to sharper AVIF, WebP, or JPEG variants when the browser and screen can use them.
The fallback stays ordinary on purpose: older browsers still get a real image, and better displays can ask for wider-gamut or experimental HDR files when those exist.
AVIF · WebP · JPEG
HDR photo files
"HDR" means high dynamic range: more room for bright highlights and dark detail than a normal SDR image. It is a display and encoding promise, not a magic quality button.
The normal photo path still uses SDR AVIF, WebP, and JPEG. Some posts also expose opt-in Display P3 AVIF files in Nerd facts: ordinary 10-bit PQ HDR files ending in -nerd-hdr-pq.avif, and AVIF gain-map files ending in -nerd-gain-map.avif.
The gain-map version keeps an SDR-looking base image and carries extra HDR recovery data for software that understands it. If the browser, operating system, or screen ignores the extra data, the ordinary SDR path is still the safe view.
HDR · PQ · Display P3 · AVIF HDR and gain maps · Gain-map idea
Why there are choices
There is no single perfect file for every screen, browser, and connection. Browse stays light; inspect spends more only after the page has a reason.
These details show what the page can actually load, so the controls stay honest.
