Images Optimization

Optimizing a site can be broadly classified into three categories-basic coding optimization, script optimization and image optimization. Of all these, the most controversial optimization category to be dealt is the Image optimization. Often people experience several difficulties with slow page loading rate and improper viewing of images. The owners of the sites too are often penalized because of the incorporation of larger images than the permitted range.

Images that are larger in sizes show a greater impact on the page load times. Larger the images greater will be the page load times and vice versa. Page load times that are high are not acceptable by any. So they have to be properly optimized to reach the desirable levels. The best way to make a page that has larger images to load faster is to reduce the size of the images. And as a consequence way, reducing the file size is directly proportional to the physical size of the image. The image of the size 80x80 is considerably small than the image of the size 160x160. Reducing an image to its half can reduce the total file size to one fourth the original size.

The next considerable aspect is the image format. Images that are used in the internet frequently use the JPEG and gif formats. GIF formats are considered to produce image files of smaller sizes than that of JPEG. But in terms of clarity and quality, JPEG images show the pictures/images well than GIF. So choosing the image formats also can show a direct influence on the page load time. There are even methods that use a combination of both these formats.

Image compression is the other vital component of image optimization. Compressing the images can greatly increase the page load time. However, GIF and JPEG formats have different process of compression. GIF image is compressed by limiting the colour counts while the A JPEG is compressed by using some software algorithms. It is natural that a compressed image loses its quality. So it is always recommended to have the least possible image quality level.

The above discussion might have indirectly taught you a point that a page that has no images loads very fast and the page that is full of images loads very slow.