KeyCDN Launches Image Processing
We're thrilled to announce that we've added the Image Processing feature! This new feature is available to all customers, is fully integrated into our existing network, and allows comprehensive on the fly image transformation and optimization. Images can now be altered in real time with simple query parameters and will then be delivered by our CDN. It's no longer necessary to store several variations of the same image on your server.
How does Image Processing work?
The Image Processing feature is available on all Pull Zones. When the Image Processing setting is set to enabled the Origin Shield and Cache Key Host settings will be set to enabled and the Ignore Query String setting will be set to disabled automatically. Enabling the Origin Shield setting is required because all image processing will occur at our shield locations. This will reduce the total number of image operations because once the image has been processed it will be cached by our shield servers, allowing our edge servers to pull and cache the processed image instead of having to process the image again. This will improve the image processing performance and decrease the overall cost.
Disabling the Ignore Query String setting is required because all image processing requires a query parameter. If this setting is enabled our network will completely ignore the query string. This would result in incorrect images being delivered because the first cached image would be delivered, even if the query string was different. Our network needs to consider query strings so that the correct image is always delivered.
Advantages of using our Image Processing
Each millisecond matters when it comes to delivering content at a blazing fast speed. When building this new feature the overall performance was a top priority, as both the processing and delivery time need to be considered. Our image processing is advantageous because it combines high performance image transformation and optimization with our global CDN. This allows for global processing, which means no matter where your users are located they will receive processed images with low latency.
Parameters overview
We offer many different ways to transform and optimize your images. This is achieved by defining the applicable Image Processing parameters.
For example, the query string ?width=600&quality=70 would transform the image to be 600 pixels wide and sets the quality level to 70:
https://ip.keycdn.com/example.jpg?width=600&quality=70
The most common parameters are in the crop and resize operations but there are many more available to process your images in the exact way you require.
How to enable Image Processing?
This feature can be activated and used when the Image Processing setting is set to enabled for your Pull Zone in the KeyCDN dashboard. Enabling this setting works well with all of our other possible Zone configurations and when enabled other content types can still be delivered successfully (e.g. CSS, JS, etc.). When enabled the x-ip and x-ip-info response headers will be added to indicate the status and output of the processed request:
curl -I https://ip.keycdn.com/example.jpg?width=400
HTTP/2 200
server: keycdn-engine
date: Mon, 13 May 2019 13:20:56 GMT
content-type: image/jpeg
content-length: 19653
last-modified: Sun, 05 May 2019 01:07:54 GMT
etag: "5cce376a-9c2f"
expires: Mon, 20 May 2019 13:20:56 GMT
cache-control: max-age=604800
**x-ip: 1**
**x-ip-info: osz=19653 odim=400x267 ofmt=jpeg**
x-cache: HIT
x-shield: active
x-edge-location: chzh
access-control-allow-origin: *
accept-ranges: bytes
Summary
With this new powerful feature it's possible to transform and optimize your images on the fly with fast delivery all around the globe. Simplify your stack and keep costs down by using an image transformation and optimization service that is in combination with your CDN. If there is a transformation or optimization missing that you're looking for we'd love to hear your feedback.
Happy image processing!