Re: [OT] ideal file size of a jpeg or gif image

[quentisl@leaves.ihug.com.au (OgO)]

In aus.rail, on 03 Nov 2000, James Brook announced:

>OgO wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> A web-page is primarily designed to be viewed on the screen, and
>> therefore a 35kb image is fine.  Have it linked to a 300kb image for
>> those who want to download it and make it a background or print it or
>> whatever. 
>
>This means I would require a 10kb image for the thumbnail, a 35kb image
>for people with poor connections and then a 300kb image for people who
>want quality.
>

No, if a 10kb thumbnail is enough to give people a decent idea of what the 
300kb image is about, then that's fine, I just used 35kb images as an 
example - if you're going to have a thumbnail linked to a full-size image 
you wouldn't want the thunbnail to be much bigger than 35kb.

>> 
>> >If you have a decent connection (56k dial-up or higher) you won't
>> >have any significant problems downloading a 300kb or less image.
>> >Unless there is significant congestion, approximately 2 minutes is a
>> >worst case scenario and 1 minute or less is the average.
>> >
>> 
>> I'm glad you can be bothered waiting that long for pages to load,
>> most people can't, which is exactly why you have the 35kb image on
>> the page, linked to the bigger, higher quality one, for those who
>> need it. 
>
>The page loads in about 30 seconds as the thumbnails are 10kb or less
>images. The thumbnails are there so you can get a fast preview of the
>images on my site. You then download the high quality images that you
>like and don't worry about the others.
>
>The images linked to by the thumbnails take about 1 minute or less to
>download on a reasonable connection without significant congestion. If
>you are trying to download it in the peak times, you may have to wait 2
>minutes for the full size image on an average connection.
>

The thunbnails on your site are fine, and load reasonably quickly.  Your 
site is very good in that respect (I don't know so much about trains, so I 
can't comment much on that aspect).

>You also have to remember that some people have their sites on really
>dodgy servers. Even if you have a good connection, you will often have
>to wait for a long time for the other server to respond. My site is
>located on Railpage which is as fast as any server I have seen in
>Australia. Here is a video capture from my site and it is 54kb. This
>should take 30 seconds or less. It took around 15 seconds to download
>on my 56k connection to OzEmail.
>
>http://www.railpage.org.au/vr/pics/vidcaps/gm36_t320_beveridge.jpg
>

That only took me about 15 seconds to load, which is fine - if you click 
on a thumbnail to get the full picture, chances are you want it so most 
people don't mind waiting a bit longer - the minute or so that was 
mentioned for the 300kb images is ok - as long as the person viewing the 
page is the one who decides to view it, they'll probably wait for it - if 
you've got something like that on say the main page, it's not so good (I'm 
not saying you do, just mentioning it as it fits in with the discussion).

>Please Note: This image is copyright and must not be used for anything
>other than personal non-profit use without my permission.
>

Fair 'nuff.

>> Ah, you're one of those: "If you want to look at my page you must
>> have the latest buggiest, most bloated browser running on the latest,
>> buggiest, most bloated m$ 'OS' " people then?
>
>Windows 95 isn't the latest or greatest operating system as it is now 5
>years old. I can even change resolutions on my old P133 without having
>to restart it like in the old days. If you don't have Windows 95 or a
>comparable operating system, then you are in the minority.
>

Maybe, but linux is getting more popular all the time.  I can't recall 
what I said this in reply to, but I was more thinking of requiring the 
latest version of IE or netscape with all the latest plugins... 99.99% of 
the time that would not be needed if sites were written better.

But, like I said, your site, and the size of the images, loads well enough 
for me on my 33.6 modem.

Regards

OgO.
-- 
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