Photos,
or artwork of some kind, is a must for today's modern website. Yet one of the
biggest problems I see in amateur-designed sites is the poor use of photos.
There are many reasons - and here are some solutions.Getting
the Most Out of Your Web Site Photos
By Jim Moore, Phoenix Technologies
Types of Internet Art Files - Digital Cameras - Screen Size & Picture Resolution - Optimization - Thumbnails - Protecting Your Art - Freeware/Shareware Downloads
Photos,
or artwork of some kind, is a must for today's modern website. Yet one of the
biggest problems I see in amateur-designed sites is the poor use of photos.
There are many reasons - and here are some solutions.
Types of Internet
Art Files
Internet photos come in three basic flavors: GIF, JPEG (or JPG) and PING.
GIF is used mostly for animations. It has fewer color options (256). It is used mainly for cartoon-type artwork, clip art and text-based animations. GIF files are usually smaller than JPEGs or PINGs, unless you have a large or lengthy animation, in which case the size can still be enormous and far too big to belong on a web site.
JPEG is used for art which requires more color and breadth, such as actual photos. More colors are available so the finished product will look better. File sizes are bigger than most GIFs, but there are ways to reduce that to a manageable size through techniques called compression and optimization. (Technically, JPEG is already "compressed", but it can be compressed even more.)
PING is much like JPEG, but a newer model.
Digital Cameras
One of the problems with today's super-mega-pixel digital cameras is their huge
file size. To view one of these photos you'd need a monitor several feet wide
and several feet high. No wonder the newest models require DVDs just to store
the pictures! Now can you imagine how long it takes to download such a photo by
email - especially on a 56K modem connection?
Unfortunately. too many web designers try to use the same files on their web site, adjusting the size perhaps - to make that humongous image appear smaller on screen. But what happens is that the entire original file is downloaded to the waiting Internet surfer, then resized. Most people won't wait that long and will be long gone before 10% of your photos is downloaded. And they'll most likely never be back!
You must shrink your photos before uploading them to the web site! That does not mean just resizing them in MS Front Page; it means resizing them in PhotoShop, PaintShop or whatever software program you use to edit your photos.
Screen Size
and Picture Resolution
Most people still use 800x600-pixel screen resolution because it's hard to
read print on larger resolutions, so take that into consideration when you
design your pages. (If you place your content within tables, be sure to use
percentages, not actual pixels, in sizing those windows - that way windows will
resize to fit the user's screen resolution).
That means, you want your photos to be no more than 400 pixels across. There's no point in photos taking up more than half the screen width. You also want to make sure your photos are no more than 72 pixels to the inch (96 at the maximum for newer screens, but keep it at 72 because you can't see a difference and they will load faster). If you upload a 300-pixel photo to your site, the viewer will have to scroll back and forth and up and down to view it, because it is reproduced at 72 or 96 dpi (dots per inch) on the monitor, making it at least 3x bigger than needed. You set these properties under Image Size in Photoshop and most similar programs, or under Image Properties.
Optimization
A process called optimization can further reduce the file size of all three
major types of Internet art files - by as much as 90%. Programs such as newer
versions of PhotoShop or PaintShop have this feature built in, usually under an
option like Save for Web. Optimization increases the "lossiness"
of a photo (that means it degrades the photo quality), so you can choose just
how much degradation is acceptable. Of course, the more degradation there is,
the smaller the file is - but you'd be surprised at what you can do without any
visible results. Remember - you are not producing Kodak photo-quality prints,
you are placing art on the Internet at 72 (or at best 96) dpi.
If you don't have one of the more expensive art programs that offers optimization, you can find them for free as shareware or even freeware. Look for the ones that let you see your changes in real time, and also offer you the ability to make thumbnail images within the same program (MS Front Page will let you create thumbnails as you design the page).
Thumbnails
If you have a large number of photos, or if the photos themselves are
still large (such as an art gallery website), you will do far better to create a
gallery page containing thumbnails (small versions) of the larger art, and use
those thumbnails as links to the larger piece. This lets the page load faster
and lets your visitors choose what they want to see in full-size (with the
accompanying long wait for download time).
Protecting Your
Art
The world is full of thieves. With the newer browsers, it's
super-simple to steal anything off the Internet - including your photos. How do
you stop it - or do you?
One way is to watermark your photos, as in the example below. Some of the shareware/freeware software listed below will allow you to create your own watermarks, as will PhotoShop and PaintShop. Thieves may still steal your work, but if they use it, they're broadcasting to the world that they are thieves.
If you're really serious (for example, if you are an artist, photographer or have high-priced art or posters you are willing to pay to protect), you may want to check out Digimarc.com. This company provides software that provides a much more subtle watermark that is also trackable, letting you know when it's stolen and by whom. Digimarc embeds the copyright information into the watermark itself and offers free downloads that enable you to read these watermarks, even on search engines like Google. Prices for their paid packages start at $70/year to protect 1,000 photos, and range up to $499/year.
There are other ways to discourage (but not totally prevent) content theft. These involve coding that is hidden on your page and makes it more difficult to right-click on a photo and save it. These techniques are discussed in the Copy Protection section.
Freeware-Shareware
Downloads
Freedownloadscenter.com
(and many other shareware/freeware download sites) offers several to choose
from, such as:
ReaCompressor
1573K - $24.95 shareware
Optimize your images for the web with your own JPG, GIF, PNG settings and see the changes in real time.Advanced JPEG Compressor 4.8
1086K - $25.00 shareware
Advanced JPEG Compressor is a handy tool to compress images. Shrink the large file size of images, optimize pictures for faster loading from the Web, e-mail photos quickly and not exceeding e-mail size limitations, resize images and make thumbnails.Web Thumbnailer 1.5
1108K - $29.95 share
Web Thumbnailer is a wizard for creation of an thumbnails from number of pictures, photos, etc. The thumbnails can be used at your internet site, home or wherever you want it to be.Photo Resize Magic 1.0
565K - free
Photo Resize Magic is a free and easy-to-use tool for digital camera owners. Resize and convert a lot of your digital photos at once. Add some visual effects to your photos too!Alparysoft Lossless Video Codec 2.0
234K - free
This product is created for loseless video compression.Trouts GIF Optimizer 2.3
366K - free
Shrinks GIFs and converts other graphics to optimized GIFs. Just drag-and-drop files then Save. Supports animated GIFs. Preview before optimizing. Search for graphics optimize recursively through subfolders. Shows previews of optimized GIFs.AAA Vistoolbox 3.02
824.5K - free
VisToolBox is a collection of easy to use professional utilities that are accessible from your computer's system tray or by using customized hotkeys. The collection includes a screen capture tool, computer screen magnifier, color picker, DOS prompt, and a path capture utility.Right Click Image Converter 2.2
1176K - $14.95
Convert between image formats from the Windows shell. Supports JPG, BMP, PNG, GIF, ICON, and several other file formats. Also can rotate/resize images. Right click on a file or a group of files in Windows, and select Convert to. As simple as that.UnJpeg 1.5
1198K - $119.95 shareware
UnJPEG is a professional tool, specially designed to help you recover your images, damaged by JPEG compression. UnJPEG performs JPEG artifact and blotchy-look removal, median noise reduction, smooth image resizing, contrast and crispness control.HTML Image Splitter 2.33
1449K - $24.95 shareware
Image Splitter is a powerful tool for optimization your web site images. Create sliced images, menus, rollovers. Make your web graphics load faster. Protect images from unauthorized copying. The program is extremely easy to use.DOLly 1.0
1349K - $14 shareware
DOLly image converter/compressor for users and specialists. Special purpose is to introduce L* Data Compression Methods via appropriate L* files, as well as to take info or to make conversions among usual (BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, TIF) files.JPEGCompressor 1.0
812K - $14 shareware
JPEGCompressor is a java program designed to compress JPEG pictures. The Program compresses pictures to a specified dimension and quality.ImageBatch 1.0
3 Mb - $25 shareware
ImageBatch can help you create thumbnails and compress thousands of images into a variety of. If you spend hours creating thumbnails, this is the program for you.JPEG Imager 2.0.8
992K - $19.95 shareware
An interactive image compressor. Provides various compression controls and a real-time preview of a resulting image. May prove to be very useful if you need to optimize your images for publishing in the Web. Includes a set of image enhancement tools.Real GIF Optimizer 3.05
703K - $19.95 shareware
Real GIF Optimizer is a powerful tool for easy optimization of GIF graphics for your Website.ZTonic.com Image Converter Cocoon 1.5
733K - $15 shareware
Batch convert image formats between "BMP, GIF, ICO, J2K, JPG, PCX, PNG, PNM, TGA, TIF and XPM" while resizing. Create one image by joining all of your other images together to make mosaics. Create Gif animations with transparent backgounds.Thumbnail Gallery Creator PRO 1.5
1500K - $14 shareware
Easily create your own html gallery from your photos or images. Built-in help, easy-to-use interface. A lot of options to choose from. Supports *.jpg, *.gif, *.bmp, *.png. Customizable gallery navigation. No html knowledge is needed.Image Optimizer 3.01
985K - $39 shareware
Enhance and optimize your site, get more page views and save costs by creating smaller faster JPEGs, GIFs and PNGs with Image Optimizer. Includes MagiCompress technology, also includes Resize, Watermark, Crop, Scan, E-Mail, Batch Wizard.JPEG Optimizer 3.15
1361K - $29 shareware
JPEG compression, quick, simple yet powerful with a real-time preview. The program is easy to use and interactively displays the results of changing compression settings on screen. Include xat's unique MagiCompression technology.JPEG GIF PNG Image Optimizer 3.01
985K - $39 shareware
Enhance and optimize your site, get more page views and save costs by creating smaller faster JPEGs, GIFs and PNGs with Image Optimizer. Includes MagiCompress technology that can halve the size of images automatically. Also includes Resize, Watermark...Absolute GIF Optimizer 1.0
482K - $24.95 shareware
Absolute GIF Optimizer is a nice utility designed to easily optimize GIF graphics for your Website. Savings of up to 50% or more in file size are possible, which can considerably decrease web page download times, save on disk space and reduce bandwidth ...JPEGCruncher 2.0.6
4113K - $49.95 shareware
JPEGCruncher can optimize your photos with one click by up to 90% for faster download times and better use of valuable server space. From the developers of the award-winning HVS plugins, which many reviewers have called the best in the industry ...Web Image Guru 3.1
2270K - $39 shareware
Web Image Guru is the ultimate graphics package that brings advanced Internet capabilities to your favorite image editing tool. It can be run as Adobe Photoshop Plug-in, as ImageStyler Preview-in module an d as standalone application. --Superior quality.JPEG Disk Optimizer 3.00
175K - na
A Windows 95/98 and NT command prompt driven program for optimizing multiple JPEGs on a disk. Free JPEG Disk Optimizer is designed to optimize multiple JPEGs in a directory and, optionally, in sub directories. JPEG Disk Optimizer is a command prompt ...Elecard Wavelet Image Compressor 2.0
488K - $20 shareware
Elecard Wavelet based Image compression utility provides extremely high compression ratio's - more then 100:1 with small distortions. Image files becomes twice less then JPEG images at the same quality. Ideal for Web applications.GifClean32 2.6d
393K - free
Now even better! Remembers your settings and restores them next time you use GifClean! Cleans comments and extraneous data from your Gif File! Smaller files download FASTER!JPEG Wizard 1.3
1 Mb - $79 shareware
An incredibly easy way to compress and manipulate your JPEG files offering the best quality JPEG compression and the smallest file sizes. Reduce your file sizes 30-70 visual loss. Not all JPEG compressors offer the same optimized JPEG compression as ...GIFCruncher Desktop EA3
704K - $49.95 shareware
Reduce the size and download times of your GIFs by up to 90 redundant and unseen information from single and animated GIFs. In Auto mode, GC suggests optimization levels and gives you comparison images to choose from - easy to use even if you've neve...Ignite Web Graphics Optimiser 1.0
1 Mb - $80 shareware
Produces small, high quality GIF and JPEG images with the specific goal of being able to make all image optimisations in the shortest possible time. Ignite gives you full control over every stage of image composition and GIF and JPEG creation in an e...Photo Crunch 1.4
1804K - $8 shareware
A utility that will allow you to reduce the file size of a JPG image by allowing control over the compression levelassociated to the JPG file. Controlling the compression level is ideal for reducing the file size of JPG images. Its a good idea to do this for images that will be used on the World Wide Web, which will reduce download time considerably. Compression levels around 50 and 60 are often perfectly acceptable on the Web. Images viewed with a 256-colordisplay will see little difference between various compression levels above 50.HVS JPEG 2.017
325K - na
A plugin for Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and other programs which creates superb JPEG images typically 45% smaller than Photoshop-standard JPEGs.WebGraphics Optimizer 30.2
4762K - $39 shareware
An excellent tool for optimizing and compressing images for online and internet use, mainly World Wide Web pages. Most images can be greatly reduced in size, and its amazing to see how much you can improve the speed of your Web site and reduce the necessary webspace. With the new Internet IntelliOptimize feature and palette manager you will get even better results and smaller file sizes in less time.WebGraphics Optimizer can also be used for the entireprocess of image handling: Starting with scanning an image, manipulating it in several ways, and finally saving it in the desired graphics file format.HVS ColorGIF 2.007
227K - na
A plugin for Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and compatible programs which produces highly optimized, compact GIFs using the HVS algorithm. It allows advanced control of color tables, transparency, dithering, gamma and thresholding.LuraWave Studio 2.0
1414K - na
A graphical user interface to control the LuraWave image data compression. You may convert the most common image file formats into or from LuRaTech Wavelet Format (LWF). The image compression ratio can be choosen freely between lossless and very high compression. You can choose the reconstruction ratio as well. In this case only thespecified amount of the data will be read from the file. A plug-in for WWW-Browsers and Adobe Photoshop is also available.
