Improve header image ratios

General
1

Hi, I just created my first smokesignal event. I have some feedback regarding this. Here is my event: FediMTL 2026 on Smoke Signal

Here is how I set it up in the “manage event” page:

image
image1352×822 118 KB

As you can see it displays horribly on desktop:

<cant put the image because of discourse restrictions>

But it also displays weirdly on mobile:

<cant put the image because of discourse restrictions>

And if I try to share it on bluesky, it also displays weirdly:

<cant put the image because of discourse restrictions>

I’m not sure what the fix is, but I thought you should know! Thanks for the project, I like it!

2

Here are the other images, one by one because of the discourse restrictions:

image
image1915×989 141 KB

3

The mobile one

image
image410×914 61.2 KB

4

And finally the last one:

image
image623×692 83.1 KB

5

Hey @res260 thanks for taking the time to give feedback. We’ll take a look at the default permissions so that new users can post images :wink:

It looks like maybe the image didn’t actually get cropped as part of the event.

There is a square image and a header image and I don’t actually know which one gets displayed where (eg on page vs OpenGraph lreview)

1 Like
6

It’s not the square image that was displayed in my screenshots, it’s the “header image”. I don’t know where the square one is displayed!

The image did get properly cropped, I think the proportions are maybe off? Here is the link to the image on my event: https://smokesignal.events/content/bafkreiahecfxj6nppmea7elleb65az4ccacxku53io6muol3h4g4gxlth4.png

7

Yep and that size isn’t the correct aspect ratio to display, so it got auto cropped badly! I think you can go back in and crop the header but I’m just on my phone right now so can’t check.

I just had this happen to be me the other day where I didn’t hit the “crop” button before saving.

So, need to have a flow where user can upload and crop in a way that isn’t confusing.

For me personally, an option for like “black bands” that keep the info in an image might be better in some situations?

(I spend a lot of time needing to make event posters manually - overlaying eg dates, location could be good)

I know that Luma seems to have given up and just went square event image everywhere - and then they programmatically make an image

IMG_1779
IMG_17791206×983 130 KB

There are a bunch of external event feeds flowing into SS now so should check what’s happening there.

8

I’m confused, can’t we just change the aspect ratio in the frontend to the good ratio? Since the ratio that is forced upon the user is not the good one