Graphics Design Basics
Displaying images
When adding graphics to your site, bear in mind that the larger images are, the longer they will take to load. If you want to include photographs on your website it is a good idea to place a thumbnail image on your content page, and then use it as a link to open a new window to display the photograph.As it may take a small time for an image to load, you should set the width and height attributes of the image to allow the browser to load the page around it, by holding a place of the given size for the image. This will speed up the loading time for your page as a whole, as it is not delayed by waiting for images before loading other content.
Adding extra information to images
Images on your site may not be displayed to a viewer for various reasons. By including the alt attribute of the image, you can give your viewers a description of the image they cannot see. Code such as;<img src="images/banner-web-design.gif" alt="Kludge - Web
Design Banner">
will allow your visitor's browser to display the text 'Kludge - Web Design Banner' if it cannot display the image. This can make browsing your site a lot easier for people who cannot view images, or for those who are waiting for larger images to load.
Using images from other sources
Normally you will want to display a picture that you have taken, or a graphic that you have made. If you want to use an image you have found elsewhere on the internet, you must first check whether the owner of the image permits other people to use it. There are a great many sites out there offering free website graphics, where you can take and use any images you want. Other websites may not want people copying their graphics, and you could get into trouble for doing so.If you find an image online which you are allowed to use, it it considered good netiquette to save the image to your own server, and use it from there instead of directly linking to it at the location you found it. If you do not do this, you will be using the image owner's bandwidth every time the image is loaded on one of your pages. Additionally if the owner moves, renames or deletes the image, your website will look broken as the image will no longer display.