Where
images are concerned, this has a detrimental effect, because the pixel dimensions of the
image no longer tally with its width and height values. In some cases, this may lead to distorted
imagery (as shown in the rather extreme example that follows); it may also lead to
visually small images that have ridiculously large files sizes by comparison. In most cases,
distortion of detail will still occur, even when proportion is maintained.
Not balancing quality and file size
Bandwidth can be a problem in image-heavy sites??”both in terms of the host getting hammered
when visitor numbers increase, and in terms of the visitors??”many of whom may be
stuck with slower connections than you??”having to download the images. Therefore, you
should always be sure that your images are highly optimized, in order to save on hosting
costs and ensure that your website??™s visitors don??™t have to suffer massive downloads. (In
fact, they probably won??™t??”they??™ll more than likely go elsewhere.)
But this doesn??™t mean that you should compress every image on your website into a slushy
mess (and I??™ve seen plenty of sites where the creator has exported JPEGs at what looks like
90% compression??”???just in case???).
Err on the side of caution, but remember: common interface elements are cached, so you
can afford to save them at a slightly higher quality. Any image that someone requests
(such as via a thumbnail on a portfolio site) is something they want to see, so these too
can be saved at a higher quality because the person is likely to wait.
Pages:
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214