As an API subscriber, you also enjoy complimentary access to our Thumbnail API. The Thumbnail API saves you the hassle of dealing with profile pictures by providing built-in features for:

Cropping images to the right dimensions
Zooming in on faces with advanced face detection
Attributing sources by adding favicons to images
Image redundancy—specify a fallback image

How does it work?

Each image field in our API responses includes a special token that can be sent to our thumbnail servers. You can specify the exact parameters depending on your needs.

{
    "url": "http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/smallville/images/5/55/S10E18-Booster21.jpg",
    "thumbnail_token": "AE2861B242686E7BD0CB4D9049298EB7D18FEF66D950E8AB78BCD3F484345CE74536C19A85D0BA3D32DC9E7D1878CD4D341254E7AD129255C6983E6E154C4530A0DAAF665EA325FC0206F8B1D7E0B6B7AD9EBF71FCF610D57D"
}

Creating a thumbnail URL

The base URL of our thumbnail server is: https://thumb.pipl.com/image. An example of a complete url would be:

http://thumb.pipl.com/image?height=250&width=250&favicon=true&zoom_face=true&tokens=AE2861B242686E7BD0CB4D9049298EB7D18FEF66D950E8AB78BCD3F484345CE74536C19A85D0BA3D32DC9E7D1878CD4D341254E7AD129255C6983E6E154C4530A0DAAF665EA325FC0206F8B1D7E0B6B7AD9EBF71FCF610D57D

A redundant thumbnail URL

Sometimes, images will no longer be available on the web. To help you create robust thumbnail URLs, our thumbnail API allows specifying a fallback token.

To use this option, send two tokens to the API separated by a comma, like this:

http://thumb.pipl.com/image?height=250&width=250&favicon=true&zoom_face=true&tokens=FIRST_TOKEN,SECOND_TOKEN

Allowed parameters:

Parameter	Description
tokens required	Required. One or two thumbnail tokens, separated by a comma. If the image referenced by the first thumbnail token is no longer available on the web, the second token will be used.
height required	Height in pixels. Integer between 100-500.
width required	Width in pixels. Integer between 100-500.
favicon	Boolean. Whether to show favicon.
zoom_face	Boolean. Whether to enable face zoom.

Using the client libraries

If you use our client libraries, we’ll handle all of the boilerplate for you.

# Creating a thumbnail URL
thumbnail_url = image.get_thumbnail_url(200, 100, zoom_face=True, favicon=True)
# Creating a redundant image URL
redundant_url = Image.generate_redundant_thumbnail_url(first_image, fallback_image, 100, 100)

# Creating a thumbnail URL
thumbnail_url = image.thumbnail_url width: 200, height: 100, favicon: true, zoom_face: true
# Creating a redundant image URL
image = Pipl::Image.new(thumbnail_token: 'TOKEN')
fallback = Pipl::Image.new(thumbnail_token: 'FALLBACK_TOKEN')
url = image.thumbnail_url width: 200, height: 100, favicon: true, zoom_face: true, fallback: fallback

# Creating a thumbnail URL
String thumbUrl = image.getThumbnailUrl(200, 100, true, true, false);
# Creating a redundant image URL
String url = Image.generateRedundantThumbnailUrl(250, 250, true, true, false, resp.person.images.get(0), resp.person.images.get(1));

# Creating a thumbnail URL
$thumbUrl = $image->get_thumbnail_url(200, 100, true, true);
# Creating a redundant image URL
$thumbUrl = PiplApi_Image::generate_redundant_thumbnail_url($first_image, $second_image, 100, 100);

# Creating a thumbnail image URL
var thumbUrl = _image.GetThumbnailUrl(200, 100, true, true);
# Creating a redundant image URL
var thumbnail_url = Pipl.APIs.Data.Fields.Image.GenerateRedundantThumbnailUrl(image1, image2, 200, 100, true,true,true);

Special cases

In some cases, both of your tokens will reference an image no longer available online, or they might contain a default placeholder image and not a real image of the person.

In those cases, the thumbnail server will return 404.