Scale before processing
If you want the target image to be a percentage of its original size, then use width=50% or height=50%, or both. The parameter scale is however a different story.
The parameter scale is used to scale the original image as a first step in processing the image. Applying scale=25% will reduce the image before processing. This can produce some nice effects, or none, depending on what happens next.
This is how you use the scale option.
| What | Parameters | The image |
|---|---|---|
| Original | &w=300 |
 |
| Downsize to 10% | &w=300&scale=10 |
 |
| Downsize to 5% | &w=300&scale=5 |
 |
In both cases, the scaling is done as the first step in processing. In all cases the final image will have a width of 300px, so the scale parameter only affects the source image used prior resizing.