Re: OT optimising pictures for web pages

["mark_harrison_uk2" <mph@xxxxxxx>]

Mick,

In my view, it depends WHERE in the site the pictures are going to be.

If the pictures are going to be on a home page, or a page where a
casual user has stumbled, then speed of loading is vital, otherwise
the user will give up. On a home page, then I'd try to have a maximum
of 6-8 graphics, each being 2-3k only.

If the user is in an area of the site where, realistically, they are
digging for more detailed information, then the chances are that the
user will be willing to wait a little longer for the page to render.
On these pages, then I'd look at 6-8k as a maximum.

Obviously, if a user has clicked on a "show me a high-res version of
this" picture, then they can be larger, however, I'd aim to give them
an idea of the size here - clicking on a "bigger picture" in,
say,
the DABS website will give you a picture that is only a few hundred
pixels square. Clicking on a "bigger picture" picture on, say, a
photo site might give you something huge.

Unless the photo is the "actual product" of the site, then I'd
aim
for a max at about 25-30k. You can get a reasonably good image in at
25k - look at http://www.gomog.com/bin/photos/index.pl?photo=21

Over a modern modem, a 25k picture should take about 5-10 seconds to
download, depending on the quality of the line.

I wouldn't have a picture of more than 16-bit colour depth on a
website unless it was a "photos" website.

Regards,

Mark




--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Mick Furlong" <hiltoneltd@y...>
wrote:
> Thanks Mark and Chris, I have Photoshop but not Fireworks, I may
try doing
> it with photoshop and the comments on reducing h x w first are the
sort of
> thing I was after. My preference is to use Irfanview as I like the
nice
> little batch facility.
>
> Thanks also Alan I have Irfanview and use it thanks (see my
original mail)
> what I really need is some guidelines on what is the best trade off
of size
> vs. quality and how I achieve them hopefully Mark's comments will
help me
> there.Thanks for replying though
>
> Cheers
> Mick
>
>   -----Original Message-----
>   From: Alancc [mailto:alan.cc@xxxxxxx...]
>   Sent: 16 June 2003 19:28
>   To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>   Subject: Re: [ukha_d] OT optimising pictures for web pages
>
>
>   Try www.irfanview.com I think it was Mark M who sugested it to
me, it
> works
>   OK and its freeware.
>
>   Alancc
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Mick Furlong <hiltoneltd@y...>
>   To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
>   Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 12:48 PM
>   Subject: [ukha_d] OT optimising pictures for web pages
>
>
>   > Folks I know a lot of you do web pages both for yourselves and
others so
> I
>   > thought I would ask this here.
>   >
>   > I am putting together a website which will have pages with 2/3
smallish
>   > pictures in the text and I want them to download fast on a
modem link.
>   > These  will then be linked to larger versions of the
pictures....easy so
>   > far.
>   >
>   > Question is how do I work out the optimum size for a trade off
between
>   > download and quality? Is there a formula or method for doing
this?
>   >
>   > the original pictures were taken on a 4.5megapiel camera and I
can get
>   them
>   > to a reasonable number of Kbytes by using Irfanview and
adjusting the
> jpeg
>   > compression, do I also need to reduce the definition? (the
originals are
>   > around 1.3MB and 2272x1704x24bpp).
>   >
>   > Thanks for any help
>   >
>   > Mick
>
>
>