Now the big issue...Graphics. They make a web page full of excitement and color, but if used wrongly or the images are too big, people will never go back to your site.

There are two common image types found on the web (GIF and JPG). Which is better for you? Keep reading and find out when and how to use these two image types.

GIF images are used for several reasons:

• Gif Animation’s (my favorite)
  • Draw each frame of an animation in a paint program, you then save each image as a different frame. You then compile all the gif frames in a program and it forms 1 gif file, but plays like an animation.
• Transparent Images or Colors
  • Using a program, you can assign one of the colors in your image to be transparent. This is a very useful technique to get rid of an ugly square image or to let the background of your home page shine through
• Interlaced Pictures
  • These type of images load a poor quality image up quickly, and then through 3 more passes, the image gets better and better as you go. This is a good type of image for large pictures that load in slowly. By using this technique, the viewer can see at least something while they wait for the rest of the image to load in.
• Images with few colors (less than 256) or Solid Blocks of Color
  • Gif Images are great if you only have a picture with a few colors, because it loads in a lot quicker. They are also good if you have large blocks of the same color. The file size is a lot smaller if you use a gif for this type of image.

JPG images are used for other reasons:

• Big Images
  • If you have a big image, try saving it as a jpeg. It will usually make the file size a bunch smaller.
• Pictures with more than 256 colors
  • If you have a photograph or an image that you scanned in. It is usually better to save it as jpeg. Not only will you have better quality with 1000's of colors. The file size is usually smaller than a gif of the same file.

The following is a side-by-side comparison of image types and sizes. I took a picture and saved it every way I could and then compared the quality and file size.