Many tables and photos on one page

[dougie]

I've always had many photos on a website, and the general advice used to be, to have them set up in separate tables, so that the page is quicker to download, as the tables will appear individually, from the top downwards, but if it was all in one table, I was under the impression that it would take longer to d/load, because everything in that table would need to be rendered first. What's the views on that?

[sonjay]

A very long, complex table can take slightly longer for the browser to display, because it has to parse the structure of the entire table before it begins to display the content inside the table. But except in very extreme cases, the difference would be unnoticeable. The download time for all the images and text, which constitutes the bulk of the time, will remain the same

Where you will find a difference is in the perceived download time. With multiple stacked tables (instead of one long one), once the browser gets to the end of the first table, it can start displaying the content (your images, in this case) inside that table, even while it continues to run through the remaining tables. Thus, your visitors have something to look at (the images inside the first table) while the remainder of the page is still being downloaded. Note that everything takes just as long to download, the only difference is that the stuff at the top appears on the page quicker. So yes, IMO, this would be a good technique for you to use if you have a page with lots of photos inside tables.

[Matt Probert]

I've always had many photos on a website

Keep in mind that many people accessing your site are on a metered connection. If you supply them with superflous photos you may drive them away.

I would suggest keeping photos separate from each other so that readers only receive the data thaey want.

Matt

[Lance]

Just curious, and off topic.

Do you really think many still applies to metered service? I would think, but I have nothing to back me up, that it would be more like very few these days. But that is just speculation.

[encyclo]

Do you really think many still applies to metered service?

Oh yes, there are still quite a lot, especially in Europe where local communications (including dialup) are metered. If you're talking about North America, then there are very few.

Heading back to the original question, if you have a large page, it will give the impression that it is loading more quickly if you split the table into more manageable chunks. Make sure that all your widths and heights are specified for each image too.