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+# ADR-005: thumbnailAspect + pageCount alongside the thumbnail
+
+## Status
+
+Accepted
+
+## Context
+
+Issue #305 rebalances the /briefwechsel correspondence list into PDF-thumbnail rows. Two pieces of metadata are needed at row-render time:
+
+- **Aspect ratio** — postcards are landscape (7:5), letters are portrait (5:7). Forcing landscape scans into a portrait tile crops away the signature; forcing portrait scans into a landscape tile wastes horizontal real estate.
+- **Page count** — multi-page letters should show a "N" badge on their thumbnail so the reader can tell a single-page note from a seven-page letter without clicking in.
+
+Both values are cheap to derive at the point the thumbnail is generated (the source image is already decoded; the PDF is already loaded) and impossible to derive cheaply later (requires re-reading the S3 object).
+
+## Decision
+
+Persist both values as columns on `documents` and populate them inside `ThumbnailService.generate()` — the same code path that writes the JPEG to S3 and stamps `thumbnail_generated_at`.
+
+- `thumbnail_aspect VARCHAR(16)` mapped to a Java enum `ThumbnailAspect` with two values: `PORTRAIT`, `LANDSCAPE`.
+- `page_count INTEGER` — `PDDocument.getNumberOfPages()` for PDFs, `1` for image uploads.
+- Aspect threshold is `source.width / source.height > 1.1` → `LANDSCAPE`; everything else (including near-square A4 scans at ratio ≈ 1.0) stays `PORTRAIT`. The 1.1 margin keeps borderline scans from flipping across the threshold on a rounding error.
+- Both columns are nullable and remain `null` for historical documents until the existing `/api/admin/generate-thumbnails` backfill rerun populates them.
+
+## Alternatives Considered
+
+| Alternative | Why rejected |
+|---|---|
+| Derive aspect client-side after image load | First-paint would have all tiles in portrait, then reshuffle into landscape when the JPEG decodes — a visible jank on slow networks. The backend already has the dimensions; client-side recomputation is a waste. |
+| Store full `width` / `height` columns | Not needed anywhere — consumers want the categorical answer. If a future feature needs exact dimensions, they can be added later without migrating existing rows. |
+| A separate `thumbnail_metadata` table | Two scalar nullable columns aren't worth a join. See ADR-004 — thumbnails are modeled as a cross-cutting aspect of `Document`, not a sub-domain. |
+| Derive page count from the existing PDF at render time on the frontend | Duplicates work already done on the backend and requires a separate byte-range fetch of the PDF header. Frontend already gets `pageCount` "for free" via the Document response. |
+
+## Consequences
+
+**Easier:**
+- `ConversationThumbnail.svelte` picks the tile dimensions from `thumbnailAspect` directly — no async measurement, no layout shift.
+- `ThumbnailRow` reads `pageCount` synchronously for the badge. Multi-page letters are distinguishable at first paint.
+- Backfill runs the same migration path for every old document — re-executing generates the aspect + pageCount columns along with the JPEG, so operators don't have a second admin button to click.
+
+**Harder:**
+- Both columns are `null` for every document until the backfill runs on a given instance. Frontend components guard with `?? 'PORTRAIT'` / `?? 1` so the UI stays sensible during the rollout window. The backfill is idempotent and cheap (reuses existing S3 object), so re-running it is the simplest recovery path.
+- The aspect threshold is a single constant in Java. A future need to tune per-type (e.g. postcards vs photos) means a code change, not a configuration change — acceptable for a single-operator archive.
+
+### Ordering inside `ThumbnailService.generate()`
+
+Aspect computation happens AFTER the JPEG upload succeeds but BEFORE the entity save — if the save throws, the columns rewind with it. Page count is captured while the `PDDocument` is still open; the `SourcePreview` record carries both the rendered first-page image and the page count back to the top of the pipeline so the PDF isn't reopened later.
+
+## Future Direction
+
+- If a postcard-specific "photo" chip is ever reintroduced, reuse `thumbnailAspect === 'LANDSCAPE' && pageCount === 1` rather than adding a new `kind` column.
+- If multi-size thumbnails are introduced (per ADR-004's future note), the aspect + pageCount are per-document and do not need to be duplicated per size.