Fast loading pictures

.gif or .jpeg

[steelrane]

Whats the fastest format to save my web site pictures between .gif,.psd, or .jpeg? By fastest I mean for the web site viewer or does it make a differance Oh yea all the pictures are 300x400 72dpi.

[defanjos]

If they are pictures, go with jpeg. If they are logos or images with solid colors, go with gif.
Don't use psd because it will not work - that is a Photoshop format and not a web format.

[steelrane]

So .jpeg is the best format for web photographs or is there a better format?
Thanks

[King of Bling]

Go with .jpg and compress them (but maintain visual quality).

I also heard we may soon be using .png in ther future...

[steelrane]

I have Advanced JPEG Compressor or can I do the same in photoshop? Or are there any suggestions?
thanks

[Splinter]

You can do the job quite well in Photoshop. Click on "Save for Web" option in the File menu. You'll get lots of options and a viewer to see image quality etc...

Good luck.

[tfanelli]

Just to elaborate on the Gif vs Jpeg formats, Gif uses a smaller color palette as one of its ways to compress a file. So if you have logo that has two colors in it you could discard the millions of other colors not used. Jpegs do not discard color as much as they degrade quality the more used. So as mentioned above for images like photographs with many colors jpg's work better. But in the end it all comes down to size. Whatever is the smallest size with the best looking quality that is what you want.

[Internet Engineer]

Just my $.02...

I have found that a suitable .gif file using 64, 128, or even as many as 256 colors will render a photo as well as a .jpg that is rendered at a lower resolution (between 4 and 8 on th 1-12 scale, with 12 being highest).

If your picture is small enough, or if you're thinking of using a "thumbnail" which links to a larger, more graphically intricate/pleasing picture, then try the .gif route.

Hope that helps!

[choster]

"Lossy GIFs" (generated by ImageReady, which loads as a plugin whe you select "Save for Web" in Photoshop) have worked for us for some kinds of gradients.

When in doubt, experiment.

[steelrane]

Thank everyone for all the help I did the photoshop "save for web" it cut my page loading time in half my pages were loading 205sec@28.8k now they take an average 45sec.@28.8k this is the best forum EVER!I'm going to try the .gif trick to see if I can get the load times down even more
Thanks