Week 4
[web optimization & rollovers]

First this week, we are looking at file optimization without the wizard function.  Below are some examples of images saved with and eye toward getting the smallest file size that still has acceptable quality.

The first image, last week's pear, is saved as a .gif file.  WebSnap adaptive function used.  I have also used an index transparency even though it was not really necessary on this page. It did not increase the file size.  Remove unused color was checked on all images and all are non-interlaced.

I do see that in all instances of this image, had I wanted the interlaced effect, it only adds 0.01 to the file size so I would not worry about size effect if I wanted it.  0.01 is pretty much a non-issue. lol 

The only change in images below is the number of colors used.  All are in standard, preset increments for this exercise and could be manually adjusted at will.  File size noted below each image.

In this small, flat color image, I am not seeing an objectionable loss of image quality until I drop to 8 colors, and even then, that size might be considered if file size were the priority over image.  That would depend on the page in question.  The most notable changes/losses are in the brightness and clarity of the color [especially the green] and the smoothness of the black outlines.  I think I would opt for the 16 color range on this particular image.

I thought the 2 color version was interesting and, were this pear part of a logo, it might make an interesting background *ghost* image at reduced opacity.  And at the extremely small file size, it would load in nothing flat.