SpiderHaven - My web is your web

WHY DOWNLOAD SPEED?

GIVING UP

Ever visit a website that takes so long to load you just give up? The vast majority of "web designers" tend to forget the painful reality that most web surfers DO NOT have lightning-fast connections, and overlook this fact in favor of huge, complicated graphics and content items. There is a fine balance between quality of images, and speed of download. As with most things, it's a compromise, but to have brilliant graphics AND quick download speeds, takes know-how and some good tools. We test all of our website designs with an environment that emulates the standard Dial-up connection speeds that web surfers still use today. This assures that what you have to offer is presented quickly, cleanly, and nobody "gives up" on you.

GRAPHICS COMPRESSION

The compression of graphics to assure both speed AND quality is, well, an art. It takes some good technology, as well as a good eye to make sure everything is of the highest quality. Trying to explain Graphics Compression is just way beyond the scope of this site, so we will simply prove it to you with some examples. Follow the links below to learn just how pleasant, or annoying, the same site could be, if your "designer" isn't doing their job...

EXAMPLE 1 - DOWNLOAD SPEED

The two images below are identical, or so it seems, until you try to download them. They are the same physical size but, Image1 is the compressed graphic, and Image2 is the original JPG as it came off the scanner. If you don't have a broadband connection, click on each image and see which one you "give up" on first.

Image1
(41.4K)

Image2
(379K)

If you have a fast connection, the difference between the two may have been minimal, but multiply that by all the graphics on one page, and you can begin to understand what proper compression is about. Go ahead and keep the two open images side by side, you'll notice that although Image1 is 89% smaller than Image2 (we're talking file size, not image size), there is very little loss of image quality. This is how you know the compression was done correctly. (To repeat Test 1, clear your browser's cache file)

EXAMPLE 2 - GRAPHICS QUALITY

Once the speed of the download has been mastered, a web designer must be sure to retain the quality of the image being compressed. For art-related sites, this is critical, as the detail in the images is the reason your visitors log on in the first place. This is where things get tricky, and where SpiderHaven has a great deal of investment. The three images below represent examples of what can happen when images are compressed correctly, and ...not so correctly.

Original
Image (71K)

High-Quality
compression (16.5K)

Poor-quality
Compression (12K)

Give us a try, we won't bite....