Image Tiles
Cut a large image into a tile pyramid for deep zoom viewers and map libraries and download it as a ZIP archive. Choose the Deep Zoom (DZI), Google Maps or Zoomify layout, a tile size from 64 to 1024 pixels, an optional overlap and JPEG, PNG or WebP tiles. Developers use it to prepare zoomable photos, scans and floor plans for OpenSeadragon, Leaflet and similar viewers.
Frequently asked questions
What is a tile pyramid?
A tile pyramid stores an image at several zoom levels, each halving the size of the one below, and cuts every level into small square tiles. Viewers load only the tiles visible at the current zoom, so large images open quickly in a browser.
Which layouts are supported?
Deep Zoom writes a .dzi descriptor and a folder per level, as used by OpenSeadragon. Google Maps writes zoom/row/column folders that suit Leaflet and similar map viewers. Zoomify writes TileGroup folders and an ImageProperties.xml file.
What tile size should I pick?
256 pixels is the standard for most viewers and the default. Larger tiles of 512 pixels mean fewer requests on fast connections. Sizes from 64 to 1024 pixels are accepted.
What does overlap do?
Overlap adds extra pixels from neighboring tiles to each tile edge, from 0 to 32, which hides seams in some Deep Zoom viewers. It only applies to the Deep Zoom layout; the other layouts always use no overlap.
Which tile format should I use?
JPEG at quality 85 gives the smallest archives for photos and is the default. WebP is often smaller still and keeps transparency. PNG is lossless and suits drawings, maps and screenshots. Transparent areas become white in JPEG tiles.
How many tiles can one archive contain?
The tool estimates the number of tiles before cutting and refuses settings that would create more than 4096 tiles. Choose a larger tile size if you reach the limit. The finished archive may be up to 25 MB.
What is inside the ZIP archive?
The archive holds the descriptor file for the layout and all tile images in the folder structure the viewer expects, named after your upload. Unzip it on your web server and point the viewer at the descriptor or tile folder.
How large can my source image be?
Uploads can be up to 5 MB in JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, TIFF or AVIF format. Images larger than 4000 pixels on a side are scaled to fit 4000 pixels before tiling, which sets the deepest zoom level.
How do I show the tiles with OpenSeadragon?
Choose the Deep Zoom layout, upload the unzipped files to your site and pass the URL of the .dzi file as the tile source when you create the viewer. OpenSeadragon reads the size and tile settings from that file.
How is this different from the image splitter?
The Image Splitter cuts a single level into a grid of rows and columns, for example for social media grids. This tool builds a full zoom pyramid with many levels in the structure that zoom viewers require.