To Compress or Not to
Compress,
That is the Question.
Whether it is nobler to wait for quality,
or to hurry and view blurs, that is THE question!
Compression of
Graphics Samples & Explanations
By
Brownielocks
(Below the graphics is a link to why my watercolor backgrounds are not optimized.)
All are JPG
files that have been compressed in Paint Shop Pro.
Load times estimates are based on a 28.8 modem.
Compare the images and then read below for MY views on all of this debate,
complaint, scams and so on.
|
No compression. |
|
|
|
75% is compressed. 25% details remain. |
Entire image has been compressed 99%. |
Everyone is in a hurry today. This means being on the internet as well as in life. So, of course people are now griping about loading time. I have gotten many "gentle" suggestions on compressing my graphics. (I will explain the watercolor backgrounds later.)
As an
artist, call it ego, but I simply refuse to lower the quality of my work to a
few basic colors, remove details, and compress the graphics to poor images for
the saving of a few seconds of time. All my graphics and cartoons are either
100% as they are or compressed no more than 10%.
Otherwise
they are fuzzy and in the case of the cartoons, the dialogue is difficult to
read. My cartoons are compressed as far as I will allow to keep the color
quality, details and text readable. Because they are big, I put one per page.
And, I've done tests and found it wasn't worth going beyond 10% compression on
them.
The difference between 100% quality and 50% quality in loading time of the Bear Graphic above was a mere 2 seconds! I mean geez! So if I have a page with say 10 graphics on it and I mush them all down to save 2 seconds per item. I am saving 20 seconds total, and I made you wait to look at blurs?
My justification!
Hey,
you are waiting for 100% of my website.
You waste no time waiting for banners, graphics and affiliate buttons etc. like
other sites. So what's worse? Waiting for ads or waiting for some
sharp images? I seriously doubt if a television with a poor quality screen
selling for $200 less than one with sharp vision, people would want it? No,
people prefer quality and well quality takes time, and that's the bottom line.
I'm
colorful. I have music on some pages.
I will not dilute my site to words and text only.
It may be faster, but then it's boring.
So people will then try to scam you into optimizing your graphics with the
promise of getting more hits and be less boring. Hey, they'll say ANYTHING
to get you to keep buying website services & stuff!!!
There are many scams out there to sell you programs to scrunch up your graphics to save loading time. The only benefit I can see compression is with photo graphics. But for art graphics and animations, you can only scrunch so much before your images are just a mushy, ugly, blurry mess!
Only
advantage to compression:
Save storage space if you are limited on MB's on your site.
To me, it does not save that loading much time.
What does? Limit graphics per page (unless your page's motive is to display graphics of course), and use a javascript for same page data, in which the same graphics and information will load once and then automatically load per page and no waiting is needed. I have that for my jump box. It loads on the first page you enter, after that you need not wait for reloading page after page. The same goes for the bottom data on all pages. This should save repeat loading time for all of you.
Want
hits? Get visible!
Get on search engines.
Buy ads in your local paper, buy promotional stuff like pencils or balloons,
etc. Put a bumper sticker advertising your website on your car, etc. I do
lots of promoting off-line.
Scrunching images is NOT the key to hits IMHO.
But then, who am I? I have no degree in website design.
I'm just a lady who challenges the status quo internet illusions of fame,
fortune and so on. LOL
So what
about the watercolor backgrounds?
Why aren't they compressed?
5/11/03
Unfortunately, I have used up all of my 200 MB of space for my site. Because
of this, I had to swallow my pride and compress my watercolor backgrounds to
make more room. I also purchased a bit more space, so that this site can remain
on-line and keep growing for a few more years.
Therefore, everything that you read about watercolor
background compression is not up-to-date. But I kept the pages up as examples of
what does happen if compressed too far.
I compressed all watercolor backgrounds approximately 10-15% and I don't think
it destroyed the artful look. (crossing fingers x !!! )
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