Web Optimization

At PixelPly we use the latest techniques and programs when working with your web graphics. One of the most important things we do with your web images is to optimize them. Optimization is the process of making graphics display and perform the best they can on the web.

Web graphics have to be created and worked with a special way to be able to be displayed on websites effectively.

One of the biggest issues with web graphics is file size. A digitalized image is made up of thousands of pixels. Each pixel is a piece of information that tells computers what to display. The more pixels per inch an image has, the more quality and detail it will display. More expensive digital cameras have more “mega pixel” ratings then less expensive cameras because the moer expensive camera will output a higher quality picture.

I am sure you have all opened a web page that has had a large picture that took a while to load and open. The reason it takes so long is that there is too much information in that image, and the computer and the Internet connection cannot read and open that much information quickly, so you wait. This is usually the top reason why poorly designed web pages open slowly; too much image information.

With web images, we need to make a copy and resize it to fit the design space. If your site has a place for an image that is 200 pixels wide, we want the image to be 200 pixels wide. This insures the image has enough information to display in that area, but leaves out the extra information that will slow things down.

After a web image is sized, it needs to be optimized. When a picture gets optimized for the web, special graphics programs are used to take information out of the picture. As the computer reads an image to display, each pixel gives the computer the information that is stored in the pixel. Computer monitors can only display a limited amount of pixels per inch so having pictures of a higher quality is really a waste of space and time. With the special optimizing software, images can be edited and unnecessary information removed to make the overall image size smaller.

With less information you will start to lose image quality. A cartoon has a lot less pixel information than a tropical forest photograph because a tropical forest photograph has much more details and information inside of it, but if you take out too much information, it will just turn into a blurry looking cartoon.

It takes a little bit of skill and experience to take out enough information to make an image small, but still have enough to look nice, sharp and clear. The software programs do most of the work, but a human eye needs to judge how much each image can be optimized.

At PixelPly, we have had years of experience working with web graphics and know how to make your images look the best they can on the Internet.