Photos per page: How many is too many?

User 170405 Photo


Ambassador
24 posts

Hi :) I'm using Editor 7 to make my website, I love it! The site will have lots of photos in it, but I'm not using a slideshow or a "photo album", I just want to place them on the pages. And I don't want to create Thumbnails that people have to click on to see the photo. I like the way they look as the size I made them, right there on the page.

I am making the photos no larger than 53kbs each, 98% are under that. Is it too much to have 20 of these on each page?

Ok... I just read this article: "A Usable Page Weight" and it seems that 20 of what I have going is way over the acceptable limit of 100kbs per page. DARN! O well... Maybe will just have to make the image dimensions much smaller? Or at least warn people of the "weight" of my "heavier" pages... lol!!

Most Sincerely,
Secret Hiker
User 37670 Photo


Registered User
2,138 posts

There are a million different answers to the "page weight" question. Here is how I see it:
Who will be looking at your pages? By that I mean, are you designing a site for people out in the country or small towns where dial-up is the standard connection, or is it a site for business and friends in the city where cable and dsl are the standard?
High speed Internet would have no trouble at all with 10 to 20 images on a page. Lower speeds would be cripled at 20 images. Design your pages for your audience. Someone will always have an issue with that, but it's how I like to work out the problem.
E-Learning Specialist
www.mainsites.ca is my website, and yes, some of it is crappy.
User 170405 Photo


Ambassador
24 posts

Hi Cliff, Yes that makes sense! :) I'll definitely keep the visitors in mind. And now I can't for the life of me find that article again, oof... darn...

If one page has several photos that take a little time to load... then, if the Website has several pages that have photos, will it make the entire website take forever to come up for someone? Or just the individual pages will take some time (on dialup)? Will that first page come up quickly if it doesn't have photos on it? Many thanks! Will post sample soon so you can see what the heck I'm trying to do... :)

Most Sincerely,
Secret Hiker
User 37670 Photo


Registered User
2,138 posts

Secret Hiker wrote:
If one page has several photos that take a little time to load... then, if the Website has several pages that have photos, will it make the entire website take forever to come up for someone? Or just the individual pages will take some time (on dialup)? Will that first page come up quickly if it doesn't have photos on it?

Hiker,
Each page is their own document. Only the pictures linked to that page have to load, not the entire website. Standard practice it to make your "home page" a fast page to load. Small images, or ".gif" images with few colors on them load quickly. Text and colored backgrounds take up little or no space as far as loading times. Use your home page to direct visitors to the other sections of your website. Supply some information stating that the pictures may take longer to load for those with dial-up connections.
You may even go as far a allowing the visitor to select a "high speed" link, with 20 pictures on each page or a "slow speed" link and create pages with 3 or 4 pictures, so that the pages load faster for slower connections. It really depends on how important the pictures are. If you don't want slower connections to loose interest, give them the option to choose their content. I'm sure they will appreciate a faster loading page even if it has less content.

There are just ideas...build it the way you want. Giving slower connections an option may or may not be needed.
E-Learning Specialist
www.mainsites.ca is my website, and yes, some of it is crappy.
User 170405 Photo


Ambassador
24 posts

Hi, thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate it very much. I like the thought of providing alternate pages for slow connections. Here is the address to what I have going so far: http://secrethiker.com . Its still in the making and not nearly ready to be officially online yet.

So far the only photos are one on the cover page, and on 2 other pages: twenty photos at Secret Gallery > Mt Elijah/Bigelow Lakes and two photos on the Who Is Secret Hiker page. Thanks for any input, I take critiquing very well! Thanks much,

Most Sincerely,
Secret Hiker
User 355448 Photo


Ambassador
3,144 posts

Secret Hiker,

Nice looking photos. Looks like you found a loose whiteface calf.

If you want to provide information about the photos, the web standards provide for the use of the title="whiteface calf" entry in your img tags. Firefox will read the titles, but IE treats the alt="whiteface calf" as the title should be treated.

Washington State is a beautiful place. My father-in-law lived in Port Angeles for the last 30 or so years of his life.
User 170405 Photo


Ambassador
24 posts

Hi Bill,

Yes, I see lots of "wild cows" (free range) on my hiking journeys in SW Oregon... all colors, all ages. I love them!! My favorite pic is one of Mamma and Baby, walking away from me, close side by side, their tails almost intertwining (they were in constant contact when they walked together). That one will be posted soon too. They seem to live a nice life, especially up in the cooler high country when its way hot in the valleys.

I admit I know nothing about Firefox... or anything other than IE... yet...

I've only seen bits and peices of Washington. My favorite time there so far was driving through the Yakima Nation... such breathtaking country I saw there!

Most Sincerely,
Secret Hiker
User 355448 Photo


Ambassador
3,144 posts

Secret Hiker,

I will have to remember to check on your site for new photos.

As for browsers, occasionally someone will have a site that is really messed up in one or the other, but look great in the other. Generally that is caused by something in the web page code that causes the browsers to operate in quirks mode. The different browsers operate differently when they are in quirks mode. I generally check my sites with Firefox until I finish the page, then I try IE6 and IE7 (yes the various IEs operate differently), then I check with Opera.

Good luck with the photo site.
User 170405 Photo


Ambassador
24 posts

Yuppers, a LOT to do before I put that site onine officially! Scarcely a soul even knows about it yet. So far, the biggest struggle is getting the photos to look nice even if the page is restored down, and especially getting the fonts to be a nice, consistent size on various screens/resolutions... mine looks hideous at smaller resolutions. And if I design it on smaller resolution screen, its almost unreadable at the higher res's. Have read here under font topic, this newbie is still very intimidated LOL Will post a font whine soon if I just can't figure it out. Got Nick Longo's book, am whining my way through that now.

Thanks much for your thoughts!
PS... Your sites look gorgeous! :)

Most Sincerely,
Secret Hiker
User 355448 Photo


Ambassador
3,144 posts

Secret Hiker,

Thanks for the compliments on my sites. I get my daughter-in-law to help me with the look.

You might want to try setting your font using CSS styling. Where you have your link styles, you could add something like:

.font1 {
font-size:110%;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS", sans-serif;
color:#330066;
line-height: 100%;
}

Then if you have a paragraph where you want a slightly large font, you just add a class to the <p> tag so it looks like this <p class="font1">

Once you start learning CSS, you will be please with how it works.

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