Handling Photographs for Inclusion in Web Pages

Photograph present special challenges when used in a web page. The speed with which the photograph loads on a page is critical. The larger the photograph or the greater the photograph’s resolution, the slower will be the page load. Multiple photographs on a single therefore become a major issue to be resolved when designing a page.

Keep the following in mind when inserting photographs into a document:

• All photographs MUST have a unique name which describes the subject. (Keep the names short).
• All photographs MUST have the .jpg extension on their file name. Failure to do so might cause some browsers not to display the photograph.
• All Photographs should be no larger then 3 inches by 5 inches.
• A photograph’s resolution should be set at 72 dpi (dots per inch) or 72 ppi (pixels per inch)
• Photographs taken from the Internet should be researched for copyright status. If used, be sure to site the source.
• Small photographs should not be enlarged. This will cause too much distortion and the effectiveness of the photograph will be lost. Always start with a large photograph and reduce its size and resolution.
• Edited photographs should be saved as a COPY so as not to destroy the original.

Photographs should be edited in a program such as Graphic Converter or Adobe Photoshop.

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