Large image file causing website slowness

[bill]

Hello, AITpro.

I have a massive image (30MB, 300dpi gif file) within a site’s homepage header I’m gearing up to launch. Due to its uncanny weight, its slowing things down a bit when trying to access the site’s homepage. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I tried to access the site outside of my office (I have 120MB+ download capabilities). That said, I activated Jetpack’s “Photon” about 6weeks ago but didn’t really notice an improvement on the homepage. I tried reducing the image (down to 6MB), but I wasn’t too thrilled about the loss of image quality/detail after publishing, so I’m thinking a plugin like this one would improve speeds. That said, I have two quick questions to pose:

1. Will a plugin like W3TC help me and
2. If so, considering it’s just for the homepage, is this the only true alternative to improve load time (for the image)?

Please advise when your schedule permits… Thanks.

Bill

[AITpro Admin]

You need to optimize/scale the image in an image editor like Photoshop.  The source of the problem is with the image size itself.  In Photoshop you want to change the image size to the actual true image dimensions.  ie if you are adding the image to a container that is 1000 x 300 then your image size should also be 1000 x 300.  Then you want to save it as a progressive jpg.  If you do not have Photoshop you can send the image to us and we will optimize/scale/resize it for you.  I need to see the actual website page where the image currently is so send that link/URL with your image file.

“…but I wasn’t too thrilled about the loss of image quality/detail after publishing”.  Yep, you are going to lose quality.  That is one thing about the whole “flat” website design trend that makes sense to me.  It is more important that your website loads as fast as possible vs “showing off”.

[Author]

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