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otis52 · Nov 29, 2001, 04:30 PM

Hey all. I was wondering what program or programs you use to compress your web images. I am currently doing a website and I am having problems with the loading time.It seems to take a bit to long for a 56k connection. I designed the page in photoshop and then sliced and formated the file type in image ready. I am saving the slices as gifs to try and bring done the image sizes but it doesn't seem to be enough. If you have any ideas please let me know..Also the link is at the bottom of this post "sneek a peek". Thanks...

Griggsy · Nov 29, 2001, 05:31 PM

Had a look at the peek, looks good graphic wise, the problem is the way that it has een implemented for web.

First thing tht has to be chnaged is the sound loop, 398kb is way to big for a couple of second loop,it should be no more than a couple of k.

The way that you have designed your page would be much more suited to Flash than HTML, where you can integrate both the high graphic content, the crispness of your line art and the sound loop into a package that will be lot less heavy .

If you want to stick to the imageready route, try and spread the graphic area so you have large blocks of solid colour, because when you export it, you can just name a background colour (no image in the slice pallete in imageready, i think) whihc will save some size 2.

Let me know, but I reckon your style suits Flash, which is a pain to learn but i think you'll find it worthwhile

godzookie2k · Nov 29, 2001, 07:13 PM

yeah,

a) The quicktime player at the bottom annoys the fuq out of me.
b) Yes, this is definately a flash situation, if only for your own sanity.
c) However, how is the load time *without* the soundtrack? Is is necessary? does it interact with the rest of the site in any way? Simple design thingamabob: If it has no use then get rid of it, especially in web where there is a bandwidth drought for many. If you feel you *need* it for the user experience then by all means, keep it. Perhaps a splash page warning the user that only broadband users may apply?

hope it helps,
Nick

otis52 · Nov 29, 2001, 08:18 PM

Yeah your right this would make a better flash site. Just thought it a html site would be " more user friendly ". All the same I would like to know for future reference if there are progams out there that mainly deall with compressing a images file size. Thanks for the advice.

Griggsy · Nov 30, 2001, 03:46 AM

You already have Image ready/Photshop which is definetiley up there as industry standard!!

Cipher13 · Nov 30, 2001, 06:00 AM

I use ImageReady... does the job nicely for me.

As for Flash... heh. I don't visit Flash websites. No exceptions.

[ 11-30-2001: Message edited by: Cipher13 ]

godzookie2k · Nov 30, 2001, 07:02 AM

lol cipher. What if you made your slices larger? that way the browser wouldn't be choking on loading a bagillion images at once. Imageready/photoshop is a fine two hit combo for image compression, you could try and track down Debabelizer, which can open just about any file format on the planet, it does a decent job at compression as does graphic converter.

Nick

Kestral · Nov 30, 2001, 08:35 AM

What about those commercial PS plugins, ProJPEG and ProGIF? I heard that's what they were designed to do.

godzookie2k · Nov 30, 2001, 10:51 AM

Its also what Imageready was designed to do. And since it ships with photoshop...

nick[/LIST]

andi*pandi · Nov 30, 2001, 05:07 PM

I don't think it's imageready's fault, you just have a page chock full o graphics. Maybe make a background image instead? with smaller chuncks for rollovers? nah.

and although it's a stylish graphic, you spelled "coming soon" wrong.

Nov 30, 2001, 11:30 PM

Originally posted by andi*pandi:
and although it's a stylish graphic, you spelled "coming soon" wrong.

That has to be one of my biggest down falls when it comes to doing any king of graphic design work. I get so caught up in the way it looks I for get about one of the most basic things, spelling. Thanks for lookin out...

godzookie2k · Dec 1, 2001, 12:47 AM

As do most designers, thats why illustrator has a built in spell check

nick

r-0X#Zapchud · Dec 1, 2001, 05:48 PM

my experience is that JPEG usually gives more compression&quality, but thats for my type of graphics. I am not sure what JPEG'ing will do for your graphics though..
its very nice, but maybe a bit more contrast to it?

otis52 · Dec 1, 2001, 08:07 PM

Originally posted by godzookie2k:
As do most designers, thats why illustrator has a built in spell check

nick

It sure would be nice if photoshop had one to. hey abobe guys take note..

godzookie2k · Dec 2, 2001, 01:11 AM

Ahh, but most designers also know better than to do type in photoshop. Then again, not everyone can afford the whole adobe package either.... Adobe guys, take note

Nick

Dec 5, 2001, 09:19 AM

hi,
I used fireworks to open up a small chunk of your graphic and it showed it as being uncompressed, and the file as 14k. Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like you haven't compressed any of your graphics at all. You need to start specifying some compression on your graphics in the "lossy" section of your optimize panel, if it is set to zero then it is not compressed.

Also it seems most of your colors are not web safe, most monitors can view more colors, but the gif format always uses 256, that is why it is better for flat color graphics. Your graphics are starting to fall somewhere between photos (jpeg) and flat graphics (gif). Also use jpeg for your photos.

Finally, when you slice, you also need to look at their content. For example I would slice big chunks of color together because there is no detail to get lost and you can throw a huge amount of compression on it. Then I would give less compression to chunks with relevant content. And your big areas of white.

sorry if you already know all this, but it's what i saw from grabbing two chunks of your graphics.

btw my web tool kit is illustrator, fireworks and dreamweaver

otis52 · Dec 6, 2001, 01:51 AM

Originally posted by <ryudo>:
hi,
I used fireworks to open up a small chunk of your graphic and it showed it as being uncompressed, and the file as 14k. Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like you haven't compressed any of your graphics at all. You need to start specifying some compression on your graphics in the "lossy" section of your optimize panel, if it is set to zero then it is not compressed.

Also it seems most of your colors are not web safe, most monitors can view more colors, but the gif format always uses 256, that is why it is better for flat color graphics. Your graphics are starting to fall somewhere between photos (jpeg) and flat graphics (gif). Also use jpeg for your photos.

Finally, when you slice, you also need to look at their content. For example I would slice big chunks of color together because there is no detail to get lost and you can throw a huge amount of compression on it. Then I would give less compression to chunks with relevant content. And your big areas of white.

sorry if you already know all this, but it's what i saw from grabbing two chunks of your graphics.

btw my web tool kit is illustrator, fireworks and dreamweaver

Thank you. this is exactly the kind of advice I was looking for. Fireworks? gotta check that out..

[ 12-06-2001: Message edited by: otis52 ]