Download time( picture issue?)

[Mary]

My Home page has 2 pictures,a theme banner & a little
paragraph. The 1st picture has been edited with photoshop
(59572 bytes). The 2nd comes from clipart. I don't think
that's too much for a page, my concern is, the bottom of
the page predict: download time, 35s over 28.8.
1- Isn't that too much time?
2- Does it mean automatically that my page will be slow?
3- Do I need to edit the pictures from clipart too?(I use
3-4 of them).
4- What should I do to make sure I don't exceed the
normal download time? ( my 2nd page has only 1 picture &
3 paragraph & still says download time: 31s over 28.8).
Thanks

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

Most people are running at 56 k nowadays so the figures aren't as bad as
they sound. You can almost halve them for the download speed for 56k users.
Having a graphic of 59KB is a bit big. That's over 10 seconds on a 56k
connection and over 20 on a 28.8. Tweaking the compression ratio for JPGs
can help a lot. The trick is to make it legible enough with the smallest
download footprint. Too much compression though and your image will
pixelate. For GIF images, reducing the color pallette can really help a lot.

Most users have an attention span that lets them wait about 12 to 16 seconds
for a page to download. Longer than that and they usually bug out and go
elsewhere. If you can keep it in that optimal range than you're in pretty
decent shape.

Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage

 

[David B.]

Link?