Scale Images Before Posting on the Web
When different people look at a Web page, there can be a valid debate as to whether the site is attractive or not. Not everyone likes the same thing. Yet there are technical aspects of the site that can not be disputed as to whether they are right or wrong. Today I'll talk about the horrendous practice of including pictures directly from a digital camera on a Web page.
Before we continue with this discussion, I want to get one thing out of the way right now. Resolution is an absolutely meaningless number when it comes to Web graphics. Don't believe me? Stop right now and read K.N. Pepper's DPI, PPI, Pixels - Facts and Fallacies tutorial.
Today I was providing a critique for a client about a local business' Web site. On one of the pages was an image that was obviously taken directly from a digital camera and posted on the site. The file was a 3.5 MB JPG file with pixel dimensions of 3000 x 4000 pixels. The site "designer" allowed the browser to scale the image to 130 x 173 pixels. Sorry, I struggle to call the "designer" by that title since this is just one of a number of severe technical errors made in putting together the site. And yes, they are charging the client for their skills.
I opened the image in Corel PHOTO-PAINT and used the Image | Resample command to change the number of pixels to the same 130 x 173 pixels specified in the HTML code. The file I saved was 21 KB. That's smaller than the original file by a factor of about 1500 and it looks better! In fact, I can get the file even smaller by removing the EXIF data stored in the file. To do this we'll use the Stripfile utility I mentioned a few months ago in this blog. After stripping the extraneous data, the file was 7.84 KB. So the original file was 458,147 times larger than the file that was created properly. My finished image is shown at right.
Using extra large files on a Web site will causes pages to load very slowly. This slow speed could scare away visitors. Losing visitors will cost you. Plus it adds a vast amount of unnecessary bandwidth and that can also cost you. Make sure to scale your images to the proper size before posting them on a Web site. That extra minute or two you spend can save you a lot of money in the long run!
Before we continue with this discussion, I want to get one thing out of the way right now. Resolution is an absolutely meaningless number when it comes to Web graphics. Don't believe me? Stop right now and read K.N. Pepper's DPI, PPI, Pixels - Facts and Fallacies tutorial.
Today I was providing a critique for a client about a local business' Web site. On one of the pages was an image that was obviously taken directly from a digital camera and posted on the site. The file was a 3.5 MB JPG file with pixel dimensions of 3000 x 4000 pixels. The site "designer" allowed the browser to scale the image to 130 x 173 pixels. Sorry, I struggle to call the "designer" by that title since this is just one of a number of severe technical errors made in putting together the site. And yes, they are charging the client for their skills.
I opened the image in Corel PHOTO-PAINT and used the Image | Resample command to change the number of pixels to the same 130 x 173 pixels specified in the HTML code. The file I saved was 21 KB. That's smaller than the original file by a factor of about 1500 and it looks better! In fact, I can get the file even smaller by removing the EXIF data stored in the file. To do this we'll use the Stripfile utility I mentioned a few months ago in this blog. After stripping the extraneous data, the file was 7.84 KB. So the original file was 458,147 times larger than the file that was created properly. My finished image is shown at right.Using extra large files on a Web site will causes pages to load very slowly. This slow speed could scare away visitors. Losing visitors will cost you. Plus it adds a vast amount of unnecessary bandwidth and that can also cost you. Make sure to scale your images to the proper size before posting them on a Web site. That extra minute or two you spend can save you a lot of money in the long run!
Labels: thursday-tip, unleashed
posted by Foster D. Coburn III at
1:00 AM
1 Comments:
Depending upon the source of the photograph, the terms of use, etc, using Stripfile to extract metadata may be a violation of the DMCA.
Lightning-fast file lubricators for fast download need to be aware that stripping data can get them into trouble-unless the photog gives permission.
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