File Size must be kept to a minimum when building a website. A visitor will not wait for your site to load. If your sites slow in loading then you have a big problem. There is a simple way to keep your site's file size down.

There is software now available on the market from popular companies, which will allow you to reduce your image size. The software essentially takes the image, and reduces the amount of colors the image uses. This will lower the file size down dramatically. Now you can even find services on the internet that will compress, and reduce the amount of space your files take up on the internet. A great place to go to reduce your file size is http://www.gifcruncher.com.

Now when you compress your image size, then obviously the quality level is reduced. If your a designer or an artist then this can be a terrible thing. A great thing to consider is providing an alternative. When your visitors first come to your website allow them to choose the high bandwidth, or low bandwidth site.

What file extension should I use?

I would strongly suggesting use .GIF if you are using the image for the web. I've noticed that Gifs take up less space, and can load fast. I use both depending on what I am trying to accomplish. You'll see me use .JPEG when I am not concerned about speed, but rather quality.