Optimizing Images for the Web
For most websites, images take up the majority of download time. Visitors to your website decide within seconds whether they will stick around. If your images are not properly optimized for the web, they will take too long to load, possibly causing you to lose potential customers. There are many ways to optimize your images. One way that can have a significant impact on the overall speed of your website is to make your graphics as small as possible.
Generally, you want to keep your images no larger than 12KB and the total size of each web page including all images, HTML, CSS and JavaScript no larger than 100KB. 50KB is even better. In order to make your images as small as possible you must use special graphic editing software.
Perfectly optimized images:
- Are in the right format for the web
- Have the correct dimensions
- Are cropped
- Have a reduced GIF index
- Have the ideal JPG quality setting
There are three image formats for the web:
- GIF
- JPG
- PNG
GIF is used for flat color images, JPG is used for photographic images and PNG is good for both types of image when you do not need your images to appear on mobile devices.
Most cameras capture images that are much larger than the average web page can display. You can create smaller images simply by changing the dimensions of the image.
Images should be cropped as tightly as possible. Cropping not only makes images smaller, it also helps define the subject of the image by removing unnecessary background noise.
GIFS include a color index of colors that are present in the image. However, a GIF index might include more colors than are actually displayed. By reducing the index to only the colors in the image, you reduce the image’s file size.
The quality setting of JPGs can be adjusted. The smaller the quality setting is, the smaller the file will be. However, adjusting the quality setting can affect how the image looks.
Alter Impact has been creating quality websites and graphics for over twelve years. For more information, please contact us today.
