How low can you go? Every byte helps your Web site’s traffic flow, but beyond that, the answer lies in image quality. We suggest that you export your image at full color and then create renditions with color values running all the way down to single digits. Create an HTML file that displays the full-color graphic next to the experimental ones, and see for yourself when you can see a significant difference.

We conducted an exhaustive test, the results of which are available at http://www.altman.com/feather. Here are our conclusions:

The shadow needed the full color of a JPEG file or a GIF file with no palette reduction at all, the latter resulting in a bit of image loss. As soon as we played with the palette and reduced the number of colors used, the shadow was ruined. The JPEG file consumed 12.7KB (with a compression value of 20) and the paletted GIF file 17.6KB.

The feather needs far fewer colors, and with each palette reduction we performed, the file became smaller and smaller. Even down at eight colors, the feather looked sharp. Too sharp, in fact—the concession being that there were not enough colors available to anti-alias as much as DRAW normally would have. With eight colors, the file was only 4.7KB.

To reiterate, this palette reduction is performed by converting the objects to a bitmap and then applying optimized palettes with varying numbers of colors present. It cannot be done at the time of export. The paletted choice in the Export dialog implies that DRAW will either use a standard palette with vector objects, or honor an optimized palette that has already been created and applied.

Repeat Graphics Whenever Possible

If your Web site has many pages, seek out opportunities to repeat background and foreground graphics. Not only will this strategy serve to unify the graphic theme of your site, but it will help out your visitors immensely. Once they download a graphic, it is stored in a data cache on their system. If that graphic is called for on different pages, the cache supplies it (at hard drive or even RAM speeds) instead of the Web site (at Internet speeds). Once a visitor to your site has downloaded and viewed a graphic, it will not need to be downloaded again during that visit (or maybe not even during future visits, depending on how often the cache fills and is emptied).

Hide Large Graphics

There are many situations in which displaying a large photograph or graphic is necessary and unavoidable. For example, if you have created an online photo gallery, you have to display them in some way. But there are right and wrong ways to do it, and your strategy will spell your success or your failure.

Figure 22.10 shows the strategy we employed to display entries in the CorelWORLD Design Contest. We used a small image that would be sufficient to give judges and other visitors an idea of the illustration. This small image is hyperlinked to a larger image, and when you, the visitor, hover your mouse over it, the bubble help announces how big the larger image will be. That way, you can decide for yourself if you want to spend the download time or move on. And if the thumbnail displays all that you needed to see, so much the better.

FIGURE 22.10  Responsible Web design includes making large photos an option rather than a required download. If you don’t want to download it, don’t click on it.

Can You Achieve Absence of Ugliness?

We turn once again to the words of our lead author:

I make no bones about it: I am an amateur designer. I do not have formal schooling in the arts, and I don’t believe I have any true feel or natural flair for creating eye-catching designs.

Once in a while I get there by accident, but most of the time, I spend my creative energy trying to get my point across with a design that doesn’t get in the way. I try to avoid being ugly.

Unfortunately, for our lead author and others like him, the World Wide Web is dreadfully fertile ground for ugliness. Consider the following:

•  Learning HTML is much easier than learning other languages.

•  There are very few limits on the use of graphics or color.

•  You can place an HTML file on the Web with very little effort.

So what can we do to avoid being ugly? Here are some points to ponder.

Don’t Overtool

The majority of sins on the Web are ones of commission, not omission. Most come from trying to do too much, usually for no other reason than because it is possible. This dynamic works on the aesthetic level as well as the technical level. While the overdesigned Web site is as common as the computer crash, plenty of well-designed Web sites are ruined by the temptation to build in too much functionality. Frames...image maps...multiple navigation tools...search engines...indexes...tables of contents. Most sites don’t need all of these tools, but when a Web builder learns about them, it’s irresistibly tempting to place them into service.

There are some sites that really need multiple levels of navigation aids. But let’s face it, many sites, perhaps most, don’t need all of the infrastructure that they offer. We recommend the one-one-one rule of thumb:

•  Use one graphic-based navigation tool as a central design element.

•  Use one text-based navigation tool for ease and swiftness of navigation.

•  Use one other navigation tool for quick access to a special place, be it back to the top of the site, to an index, or to a page with a special product, offer, or announcement.

If you can show off the technology within that constraint, you will have scratched your gee-whiz itch, and at the same time very likely will have achieved absence of ugliness.