An uploaded image is re-encoded **once**, as it arrives, and the file
you sent is not kept. That makes it worth thirty seconds of thought
before you upload, because it cannot be revisited afterwards.

## Upload the best version you have

Do not shrink a photograph to "save space" first. Panova will size it
for you, and it cannot put back detail that was gone before it arrived.
Keep your masters wherever you keep the rest of your originals.

## Two sizes, by what the image is for

- A **backdrop** fills a view — a scene background, a cover, a page
  hero — and keeps up to 4096px on the default quality setting.
- Anything **inline** sits inside a panel — a pin's media, an intro
  image — and keeps 1600px, which is more than a panel can show.

The distinction matters most for 360°. A viewer showing 90° of an
equirectangular photo is showing a quarter of its width stretched
across the whole screen, so a panorama needs far more pixels than a
picture that will sit in a box.

A file uploaded straight to the asset library is treated as a backdrop,
because it might end up behind a whole scene and guessing small there
is the mistake that cannot be undone.

## Changing the numbers

An organisation admin can move both, on **Organisation → Settings**.
Space-saving trades sharpness for a smaller storage bill; best keeps
more of what you sent. See [Your organisation's
defaults](/support/articles/organisation-defaults-language-and-images).

## Rotation

Photographs taken on a phone or a 360° camera carry an orientation flag
rather than being stored the right way up. Panova applies it on the way
in, so an image that looked correct in your photo app looks correct on
the scene.

> Your file is re-encoded once, on the way in, and the original is not kept. That is why the size is decided before you say what the picture is for.

## A linked picture skips all of this

A picture you point at with a **URL** is not re-encoded, not resized
and not stored — it stays on somebody else's server exactly as it is,
which is also why it can disappear. Ticking **Save a copy to my
library** on that tab brings it through the same path as an upload.