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You wouldn't pack the same gear for a weekend getaway to Bermuda as for a business trip to Buffalo in the dead of winter, but if you've spent a career publishing on paper, you might need to develop your instincts about the best items to take to the Web. Here are some basics when your destination is the Internet.
Baggage Limits
You naturally want your print images brimming with high resolution. Apply this same principle to the Web, though, and you're sure to lose readers before that exquisite image even loads. Instead, your goal should be to pack as much content and art into the smallest file possible, all the while sacrificing the least amount of image quality.
As a general rule, try to keep individual graphics under 10K. The file format you choose is crucial -- for example, the same one-inch-square photograph will generate the following file sizes:
- JPEG using medium quality: 10K.
- GIF using the Web palette of 216 colors: 15K.
- TIFF prepared for press: 284K.
Modes of Transportation
Different audiences have different connection speeds. Even though 56K, DLS and cable modems are gaining users in the marketplace, today the average consumer has a 28.8 modem, while the average business has a 128K connection. The slower your users' connection speed, the less content and graphics you should place on a page.
When you consider that a single 10K JPEG image translates into the following download times, every image you include better be crucial:
- Modem speed 14.4 = Download time 14 seconds.
- Modem speed 28.8 = Download time 7 seconds.
- Modem speed 33.6 = Download time 6 seconds.
- Modem speed 56 = Download time 4.5 seconds.
- Modem speed 64 = Download time 3 seconds.
- Modem speed 128 = Download time 1.5 seconds.
- Modem speed 256 = Download time 0.75 seconds.
Site Seeing
When designing a page, keep in mind that users' screen resolutions vary. While higher resolutions such as 1024 x 762 pixels are growing in popularity, most users are viewing pages at 640 x 480 or 800 x 600. A good design takes into consideration how a page display changes when faced with these different screen sizes. To accommodate the lowest common denominator, the most common banner size on the Web is 468 x 60 pixels.
Common Grounds
Given the many differences between Macintosh and Windows systems, it should come as little surprise that both display colors differently. Windows PCs use a standard gamma of 2.2 and Macs use 1.8 gamma. This difference causes images created on the PC to look pale on the Mac, and Mac images to look dark on the PC. In addition, PCs and Macs have a different set of 256 "system palette" colors, where only 216 of these colors overlap. Your safest bet is to always design with these 216 Web safe colors.
©2001 Aquent, Inc. All rights reserved.
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