What Is Low SRC in Dreamweaver?
When inserting images into a page using the CS3 or earlier version of the Adobe Dreamweaver website design program, you can also specify a "Low SRC" version of each image. This version of the image loads before the main image, giving viewers of your website using a slow connection a lower quality preview of what they are waiting to see. This feature, however, doesn't exist in Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 or newer versions of the program.
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Low SRC Image Features
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A low SRC image must have the same pixel size as the main image. A common pixel size avoids the page content moving around as the main image loads. However, the image needs to be as low quality and as small in file size as possible. This ensures the image loads quickly even for viewers on a very slow connection. To create an appropriate low SRC image, edit your main image using an image editing program. For example, change it to black and white instead of full color, remove any animation and save it as a GIF or highly-compressed JPG file.
Inserting a Low SRC Image
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The low SRC feature for images provides a low quality, placeholder image displayed while larger images are loading. It helps ensure viewers on a slow connection can immediately view the content in your page correctly, rather than having to wait for all images to load. To insert a low SRC image, click any image in your page from within Dreamweaver to display that image's Properties panel. Click the folder icon next to the text box labeled "Low SRC," navigate to the location for your desired low SRC image. Double-click the image to select it and insert the information for it in the text box.
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Feature Support
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The low SRC image feature relies on a non-standard attribute for the HTML IMG tag, unsupported by most modern browsers. As a result, this feature won't work for most viewers of your website, regardless of connection speed. Because of this, specifying a low SRC version of an image is only possible in Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 and older; newer versions of Dreamweaver have removed the low SRC text box and associated icons and present no way of specifying a low SRC version for an image short of editing HTML code directly.
Considerations
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According to the usability guidelines published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, use images only when they are a key part of a website's content, since viewers can quickly become frustrated if a page takes a long time to load. Specifying a low SRC version for large images helps alleviate this issue for those using a browser that supports the feature. However, its widespread lack of support makes it preferable to focus on ensuring that all images you use are as small as possible in file size rather than relying on specifying a low SRC image.
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References
- Photo Credit BananaStock/BananaStock/Getty Images
