Every graphic you use will slow down your site for its visitors.
(According to some estimates, 20 percent of your visitors leave for every 10 seconds you ask them to wait for a page to download. That means, if 100 people arrive at your slow-loading page: 80 remain after 10 seconds; 64 remain after 20 seconds; 51 remain after 30 seconds; 41 remain after 40 seconds; 33 remain after 50 seconds; and after one minute you have lost all but 26 of the original 100 visitors. Rest assured all those who left will never return.)
Use this calculater to compute any file's download time, given your target connection speed and file size.
|
Modem Speed Comparison |
Download time in minutes (raw speed) |
||||||
| 25K | 125K | 250K | 500K | 750K | 1500K | 3000K | |
| 2400 bps | 2 | 9 | 18 | 36 | 54 | 108 | 216 |
| 9600 bps | 0:30 | 2:15 | 4:30 | 9 | 13:30 | 27 | 54 |
| 14400 bps | 0:20 | 1:30 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 18 | 36 |
| 28800 bps | 0:09 | 0:45 | 1:30 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 18 |
How to lose your Web viewers
Usable Web: Speed
Proof positive that smaller is better
The art of single-pixel images
Single-pixel images reconsidered
Progressive JPEG samples
Transparent and interlaced GIFs
Recommendations from the Web Design Group
Optimizing your designs for WebTV
Animated GIFs
Making animated GIFs (part 1 of 3)
GIF Builder documentation
Animation Factory (7,000+ free 3D animations)
Internet gallery of GIF animation
Optimizing animated GIFs
Top 10 mistakes in Web design
Web interface design: Learning from our past
Great Web site design tips
Engaginging your audience
Net tips for writers & designers
ULead Systems' tips & techniques
Do's and dont's of Web site design
The 6-Step guide to Web design
Dan Shafer: User interface lessons
Dan Shafer: Building a better interface
Designing an effective logo for your Web site
Taming typography on the Web
Typofile Magazine: The best faces for the screen
Anti-aliasing graphics for the Web
The Importance of Being Anti-Aliased
Which browsers support which features?
LookUP's image library
Yahoo Image Surfer
Laurie McCanna's free art page
Andy's Art Attack!
Clip Art, clip art, and more clip art
ArtToday (free 30-day membership available)
Free stuff (clip art and HTML templates) from Elated
Task Force Web Art LITE
Web Clip Empire
Yona Elig