Which file types take the last amoutn of time to load?

Airick1994 · Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 101 Location: Canada, eh?

I use images for my website templates, and not just for photos in the site content. I need to know which file types take the least amount of time to load.

I would guess GIF, but I honestly have no idea. I've heard that JPG is, but I thought JPG was for saving high quality pictures, and I would assume that those would take more time to load.

So, if I have some images for the background of my site, what should I ave them as? I'm planning on using images a lot more for templates, and I don't want my apges to take hours to load.

Corey Bryant · Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 1:41 pm

Usually jpg are "images", but sometimes they might be smaller. I usually will see what the size is on both and also the quality.

There have been times JPG was smaller and others when GIF was smaller. And then of course there is PNG.

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Airick1994 · Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 101 Location: Canada, eh?

I have to say, that answered nothing.

How about this: What file type do YOU use? Which file type is USUALLY the smallest?

Corey Bryant · Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 3:11 pm

Sorry I thought I said it varies.

A JPG is usually better for photographs - the image will not degrade as much (like in a GIF). If the image is uniform, perhaps with a few colors (less than 256), the GIF will probably be smaller / better than a JPG.

PNG would be better than a GIF (some think), but some versions of IE do not fully support the PNG (transparency) so it should not be used in this instance.

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mjpliv · Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 406 Location: Nova Scotia

I think the answer you are actually looking for is this - the smaller the file - the faster it will open. It's all a matter of available bandwidth and connection speeds.

But keep in mind what Cory has offered - use the appropriate file type for the quality you are trying to achieve. Sometimes speed has to be sacrificed.

Airick1994 · Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 101 Location: Canada, eh?

Ok, so, PNG will usually be the smallest? I understand that PNG transparency isn't always the best, I never use it anywys, I always use GIF for transparency. But all browsers WILL load a PNG, correct? If so, then that is what I will use.

Also, sorry if I seemed rude before. I wasn't actually mad or anything.

Corey Bryant · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 1:57 pm

Not all browsers will load a PNG unfortunately. Check out GIF or PNG as well for some information.

PNG Files Do Not Show Transparency in Internet Explorer shows one option.

With this, it is not really a positive / negative scale, but a lot of grey. It won't be one or the other, but most will tell you not to use PNG for the lack of support in the MSIE browsers. And some will tell you to use them because they are better and if someone is using MSIE as their browser, that is the end user's problem - the designer is "right".

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