How to Make Sure Graphics are Correctly Optimized

Web graphics are reduced or optimized for three reasons: to fit the available bandwidth, to make a site server-friendly and to make the site reader-friendly with fast load times. Read on to learn how to make sure graphics are correctly optimized.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer

1. Familiarize yourself with the different kinds of color palettes used by each platform. Some use a 256-color palette, while others adjust their palettes based on the available colors.

2. Reduce the number of colors in the image by clicking the "Optimization" features of your paint program. You can also compress your graphic file by clicking the “Compress” option.

3. Blend colors to create other shades. This can also help in reducing the actual size of the Web image. The blend tools are available in many paint programs and are easy to use.

4. Preview the image and see if the colors and shading are still balanced. If you are not satisfied, you can enhance or reduce the image again by clicking the "Optimization" tool.

5. Compare and contrast the reduced image with the original picture. If the colors are too degraded or altered from the original, you will have to adjust the "Histogram" or the color grid to compensate.

6. Upload the optimized picture to your Web page. See how it looks when placed against the background of your Web site. Visit your site a couple of times to see how the image loads.

Tips & Warnings

• When optimizing graphics, try to work on a monochromatic palette, which means you will be using different shades of a single color. Single color scales are slightly easier to process and load.
• Use several small graphics on your Web page rather than using a single big picture. Smaller images are easier to optimize and upload into the Internet.
• Crop your Web images to include only the important parts of the picture. Cropping images can save a lot of memory space and reduces download times.