Using Images
The information here is a quick
description of things to know about using images on the
internet.
Always call your pictures and graphics
'images' because that's what the code calls them and so
will anybody else that you will ever be dealing with regarding
your website.
There's about eight different types
of image formats and you might come across all of them
at some time. The two most common types of image formats
used on the internet are called '.gif' s, and '.jpg's.
The acronyms stand for something but it's not important.
The .jpg format is meant to be used
with photographs and the .gif format is meant to be used
with illustrations, logos and print type materials. HOWEVER,
this is not a rule.
An image that started off as a .jpg
of a photograph can be converted to the .gif format for
any reason you need to do it and vise versa. Reducing
file size is the primary reason for changing from one
format to the other. You can even optimize an image to
be part .gif and part .jpg within the same picture.
Images are not ready for the internet
until they've been 'optimized', which means the image
has been edited to look good and still be as small as
possible in file size, converted to either the .gif or
.jpg formats, and saved at a resolution of 72 pixels per
inch (ppi).
The main thing to remember about
using images is to make sure you keep the total file size
down for the whole page. Pages over 500k start seeming
pretty slow loading on older computers running at 28k
modem speed.
