GifClean32
One of the number one things to consider when creating a web site is load time. After your pages including graphics reach a certain size (over 40kb generally) people will begin visiting somewhere else. Consider how big the internet really is and how many sites there are. How often would you wait 15 minutes for a page to load on someone's site about their cats? There are plenty of sites about cats, after all.
How do you get around this? Well, you design your site well, keep your
pages small, and optimize your graphics.
There are many ways to optimize your graphics. You choose the proper format (JPG, GIF or PNG), optimization methods (when available) and color pallets (again, when you can) to make your pictures smaller so they load faster.
There is another thing that you can do which can have a dramatic effect on load time. If you have many GIF images on your pages, you should run them through a nice little freeware program called GifClean 32.
You see, quite often GIF images contain comments. These are pieces of text which are not displayed. They are used to show who holds the copyright, that the GIF was made illegally (using unpurchased software) or simply to show who the author of the image was.
You have to ask yourself, if you are putting these images on your site do you really care about these comments? Does any of this stuff enhance your website to your visitors? The answer is: no, not really.
So why not remove all of this junk? GifClean32 will do just that. It's quick, easy, and efficient. The program works and it works well. Best of all, it's free.
Additional Information
- Graphics Formats - GIF The GIF format is an excellent format for many types of graphics.
- Graphics Formats - Animated GIFs Use animated GIFs to create moving images on your web site. Just remember not to overdo it.
- Graphics Formats - JPG JPG is best for images with gradients, blends and inconsistent color variants. It is very efficient but parts of the image are lost by the compression scheme.
- Graphics Formats - PNG The PNG format is a newer, better format than GIF. It may soon be the dominant format on the internet.
- Graphics Optimization Here are some utilities which allow you to optimize your graphics formats