How big is too big?

[alexpgp]

The subject is graphics, being downloaded onto a Web page. (And what first crossed your mind? Hmm? But I digress...)

Sitting on the end of a 31 kbps connection, I receive somewhere between 3 and 4 kB per second when there is a tailwind around the data in the phone wire. Therefore, a 15 kB graphic takes 4-5 seconds to load, and a 60 kB graphic takes four times as long.

I've been on the receiving end of some utterly humongous graphics (though not from anyone one my friends list here on LJ that I recall), so I know what kind of a pain it is to suffer through.

Is there any conventional wisdom to cover this? I've got to figure that a 60 kB graphic would be near the maximum end of the scale, no?

Cheers...

Comments

[pixelpusher.livejournal.com]

As a courtesy, I try and keep all my web graphics and file attachments under 60 k, unless I know for sure that the enduser has cable modem or better.

60k is the high end of Big for a regular-bandwidth website.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I just picked 60 kB out of a hat, kind of. But it's good to know it's about the right figure.

Galina'd signed up for one of those sites that offers a sort of on-line "office." The only problem was the folks running the show figured unless the whole thing was highly graphical (e.g., a telephone to denote an address/phone book), it wasn't snazzy enough. To make a long story short, you could not download the entire page in under 3 minutes if your life depended on it and you had a less-than-DSL-quality connection.

Thanks for the info.

Cheers...