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Finding Images and Graphics for Websites

Images on a website are a necessity. Few people could tolerate reading long tracts of text on a PC monitor unless it is broken up with images to create some "eye candy".

Like printed publicity material the Internet is a very visual media and images can be used extensively to get your message across. This applies to business websites as well as entertainment websites.

Finding Website Images

Finding suitable images should not be a problem nowadays. Most people now have a digital camera that can be used to take lots of images related to your business.

For general web page illustration purposes a high resolution camera is not necessary. In actual fact digital cameras are often capable of taking images at a higher resolution than can be displayed on most PC monitors so nothing special is required for general website images.

Website image wrong The two images below are exactly the same size. We must consider how the image will look when it is scaled down on a computer screen.

Ensure that the detail you want to show (the paddle steamer) will still be large enough when the size of the image is reduced.

The scale of this image is as it was originally taken. Viewed from the camera on a large screen and at full resolution it looks fine but when it is reduced for this page you can see that most detail is lost.

Website image correct This is from the same original image but in this case it has been processed and the paddle steamer, which after all is the subject of the photograph, is now much larger.

This can be done using basic image processing software to crop the image. Sometimes this software is bundled with digital cameras but there are low cost applications available for purchase if required.

Clearly if you want to spend a lot of money you can hire a professional photographer to take the website images for you and if you can afford to do so then this is the way to go.

If you are on a tight budget then it is possible to obtain images of a suitable standard without compromising the quality of your website.

Web Page Load Time Considerations and Images

Tests have shown that some people will wait no more than about five or six seconds for a web page to load. If it has not loaded within this time they may hit the back button tand leave with a bad impression of your site without ever having seen it. This makes it essential that your pages are optimised to load as quickly as possible.

Using high resolution images on your website can add very significantly to the time it takes web pages to download. While broadband is quickly becoming the norm a significant proportion of web users are still on slow dial-up connections. If you have too many images on your pages this will slow them down considerably.

Also, if the images you have on your pages have not been properly optimised then they will take too long to download. They can be optimised for this using the software mentioned earlier. Any competent website designer will be able to advise you on this,

Finding Website Images on Stock Image Websites

Stock image websites are sites which hold a large database of images and graphics on every conceivable subject. Until relatively recently this market was dominated by large Imaging companies like Getty and Corbis. Their charges were extremely high and a single image could cost as much as $500 dollars for one year's use.

More recently lots of new stock image sites have appeared. Some of them offer images for free but with better ones charging as little as $1 for a professional quality image the costs are negligible. You have to be careful with licensing. If you buy an image this normally allows you to use it on one website only but at $1.00 a time this is not a problem. If you wanted to use the image on publicity material an extended license may have to be purchased. An extended licence on these site is generally only $50 to $100 so it is still quite affordable.

In addition to photographic images these sites also offer Flash movies that can be tailored to your requirements, logos and vector graphics submitted by graphic designers. Further information on finding website images and links to some of these sites are available on our useful links page.

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Business Website Information

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Finding Images and Graphics for Websites

Finding Website Images

Web Page Load Time Considerations and Images

Finding Website Images on Stock Image Websites