Step 7 - Maintain (Cont.)

Reduce Download Time - PNG

Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format was created to improve upon and replace the GIF format. PNG is pronounced "ping". Support for PNG will be widespread in the near future, although it will never completely replace GIF, as it doesn't support animation.

Designed to overcome both the legal issues and the technical limitations surrounding the GIF format, PNG images can be optimized with the same basic techniques used for GIFs.

Graphics optimization is key for fast Webpage display. On-line graphics programs are available optimize the file size and quality of your PNG images.

I recommend you use a online such as SiteReportCard Image Optimization tool which you can use for free. With this tool you can optimize GIF, JPEG, and/or PNG images. Decreasing the file size of your web images will increase the download speed of your web pages without affecting image quality!

You can select images from your Webpage URL or your hard drive. Enter an image or graphic (GIF, JPG, PNG) that you would like to optimize and their software will compress and display the image at various levels of image quality. Use it as often as you like, there's never any charge.

The image below (balloons.png) was optimized using imagereducer. The original image is displayed, then nine (9) optimized images are dispalyed at various levels of image quality.

Original: PNG
Size : 76,177
Colors: 30,927
Height: 200
Width: 200
balloons

Size: 30,625
Colors: 256
Savings: 59.80%
balloons_1

Size: 26,056
Colors: 128
Savings: 65.80%
balloons_2

Size: 21,002
Colors: 64
Savings: 72.43%
balloons_3

Size: 17,388
Colors: 32
Savings: 77.17%
balloons_4

Size: 16,023
Colors: 24
Savings: 78.97%
balloons_5

Size: 14,139
Colors: 16
Savings: 81.44%
balloons_6

Size: 10,115
Colors: 8
Savings: 86.72%
balloons_7

Size: 6,765
Colors: 4
Savings: 91.12%
balloons_8

Size: 3,663
Colors: 2
Savings: 95.19%
balloons_9

Many of the images above are significantly smaller in the number of bytes they require to be displayed on the Internet, with no noticeable difference in quality. However, once color depth reaches 16 colors, image rendering becomes unpredictable. I recommend you never select an optimized PNG image below 16 colors.

Next - How do I create thumbnails?

Return - Reduce download.

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