Posting image files to the web is a great way to share photos and drawings with the rest of the world. You should follow these tips to insure a good and efficient presentation of your photos and drawings.

Image Size

Computer images are measured based on the quantity of picture elements, or pixels. A pixel is a small colored dot that the computer screen generates. By combining a group of different colored pixels, the computer screen paints an image for us to see.

Most computer screens are set so that they display either 800 pixels across or 1024 pixels across. Other settings are possible, but these are the most popular. The settings are determines by the person who uses or sets up the computer. When you post images, you might want to resize them so that they are no bigger then 800 pixels wide. If they are bigger then 800 pixels wide, then either the visitor will not see the whole image, causing them to scroll their web page, or the web browser will shrink the image to fit, resulting in wasted file space and slower download speeds. A digital photo taken at medium or high resolution may result in an image that is about 2000 pixels wide. It is good practice to resize your images to somewhere between 600 to 800 pixels wide before you upload them.

Dots Per Inch (DPI)

Since most computer screens are about 13 inches across, then the typical number of pixels (sometimes referred to as dots) that can fit in one inch of the screen will be about 75. That means that a high resolution computer screen will display about 75 dpi (dots per inch). If you resize your image, you may want to check to make sure that the DPI is no greater than 75. If it is, then your image file has more information than what is needed to properly display the image. This will result in larger image files and slower download speeds, even with a broadband connection.

Displaying and editing images

Most modern web browsers will automatically resize an image to fit into the web browser. If the image is part of a web page, then the image will be displayed at it's real size and will not be resized to fit the screen. To resize an image, check with the image processing software that you receive with your digital camera. There is also some good commercially available software on the market, such as Paint Shop Pro or the WinSoftMagic JPEG Compressor. This software will allow you to resize your image so that it will fit properly into a web page.

Remove old image files

Image files tend to take up more space then text web pages. When you are no longer using old image files, please remove them from the server so as to free up your web space.

Review your content

Keep in mind that once you put an image on the web, that image can be viewed, used and printed by anyone in the world. Make sure that you are posting your images in accordance to any agreements between you and the owners of the images. In some cases, you might want to get permission from an artist if you are displaying a drawing or from people that might be in a photo.

Thumbnails

Have too many large images on one web page is not good web page design practice. This will cause slower download times and will make it difficult for a visitor to view the images. As an alternative, you can make "Thumbnail" size images to add to the web pages. You can then set up a link to the larger image so that the full size image will be displayed when the thumbnail or a link under it is clicked. You still want to resize your larger image to be under 800 pixels wide.

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