Image Optimization: Common Mistakes And Solutions

Learn how to decide on the proper image formats, sizes and caching ways to optimize the performance of your web site.

In 2016, all trendy websites ar media made. Among alternative media, pictures themselves represent over hr of the typical computer memory unit per content sort downloaded once an online page is loaded. this is often why, in your quest of associate optimized, fast-loading web site, image optimization should be a prime priority. Here are the foremost common mistakes developers and designers build once it involves handling images—and the way to solve them.

Using pictures for belongings you will Do With CSS

There was a time once the CSS specification was pretty basic and pictures were required for backgrounds, shadows, icons, etc. However, with CSS3 being well-supported by all major internet browsers, you’ll be able to currently build your web site load quicker and save on information measure by mistreatment trendy CSS techniques. Do you want a gradient? you’ll be able to copulate thus with pure CSS. Fancy some icons? Don’t use images—use SVGs or associate icon web font instead.

Using the incorrect Image Format

One super common mistake, once it involves serving pictures online, is to use the incorrect format. Let’s total it up: .jpg, .gif, and .png are the 3 most typical formats for pictures on the net. however, it doesn’t mean simply} ought to just use whichever format you wish. In fact, every format has its own professionals and cons, and mistreatment the proper format for the proper quite image are some things that may undoubtedly save information measure and cargo your web site quicker whereas still displaying a decent quality image.

Photographs should be in .jpg format. Logos or charts? Then, .png is the right selection. What about .gif? solely use it for terribly little pictures like perennial backgrounds, that you simply can’t do with pure CSS. GIFs are massively in style once it involves displaying short coiled videos. however, did you recognize that a 6MB .gif image will be expressed as a 300KB .mp4?

You should additionally contemplate rising formats. Created by Google, WebP may be a trendy image format that gives superior lossless and lossy compression (26% smaller in size compared to PNGs) for pictures online. As of now, WebP is natively supported in Chrome and Opera, and there’s little doubt that alternative major browsers can follow. Microsoft has additionally created another trendy format known as JPEG-XR—supported completely by Microsoft browsers.

Using Non-Optimized pictures

As a rule of thumb, each image that you simply show on your web site ought to be optimized. the simplest thanks to optimizing a picture are to use Adobe Photoshop’s “Save for Web” feature.

If you’re mistreatment WordPress, then you must undoubtedly install the WP Smush plugin: It mechanically optimizes all pictures you transfer through the WordPress uploader and reduces them up to ninetieth with none compromise in quality. It additionally has an associated possibility that enables you to batch smush pictures you have got antecedently uploaded. This plugin is unquestionably a must-have! There’s additionally a premium version of the plugin out there with further options and accrued optimization. I haven’t tested it nonetheless however it’s super fascinating.

Using Browser Resizing on massive pictures

In 2016, it’s obligatory that your web site adapts to varied devices and resolutions. whereas creating your web site responsive is comparatively simple, managing pictures may be a ton trickier.

It will be terribly tempting to use one image, at the utmost resolution required, so use browser resizing to scale it down for smaller resolutions. the matter with browser resizing is that you simply still deliver the identical massive image, which consequently makes your web site take a protracted time to load on mobile devices and wastes bandwidth—as well as your visitors’ mobile knowledge.

The solution to the present downside is to form totally different thumbnails of identical image and deliver the proper image size in step with the consumer resolution. To do so, you’ll be able to either use associate ASCII text file resolution, like the acknowledge ImageMagick, or believe a cloud-based service like Cloudinary.

Not mistreatment Caching on pictures

Not catching your image may be a mistake that creates your web site slower and prices you additional information measure. pictures and alternative static resources ought to be cached so as to instruct the returning visitor’s browser to utilize an antecedently fetched resource.

Caching will be simply enforced by pasting the subsequent code into your .htaccess file:

ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/jpg “access 1 year”
ExpiresByType image/jpeg “access 1 year”
ExpiresByType image/gif “access 1 year”
ExpiresByType image/png “access 1 year”
ExpiresByType text/css “access 1 month”
ExpiresByType application/pdf “access 1 month”
ExpiresByType application/javascript “access 1 month”
ExpiresByType application/x-javascript “access 1 month”
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash “access 1 month”
ExpiresByType image/x-icon “access 1 year”
ExpiresDefault “access 2 days”

If you’re using WordPress, I highly recommend the W3 Total Cache plugin, which offers image caching as well as many different options for a faster website.

Yashwant Shakyawal