Image Formats Used on Your Blog
On the Pingdom Blog, an extensive study (using data from their Full Page Speed Test of 23+ million images) was conducted on the three leading image formats – JPG, PNG, and GIF, as to which format is the best to use for page loading speed, format, etc.
Here is a brief overview of some of the details (above graphic copyright Pingdom; additional information can be found on their blog) of the survey.
- GIF images were used the most often, at 54.7% of all images, followed by JPG, and PNG at 14.4%.
- JPG images contribute the most to page size.
- There are approximately forty-three images per web page (240KB; 61.3% of total size).
A large percentage of the smaller files are likely used in web design, whether in the actual CSS or hard-coded into the HTML portion of the page. It is interesting to note that while JPGs are the most commonly used, they are often the highest culprit of total page load size and load time of sites behind other objects such as Flash.
While I personally have no preference on the format of post images – JPG suits most, while PNG is better for images with text due to compression issues, what format do you generally use on your blog the most often? I’d like to hear your thoughts on the findings.
JPG size is up big because GIFs used are mostly small probably.
I stick to PNG at my blog (a lot of software screenshots), it is as sharp as GIF with flexible color palette. Only loses to JPG in compression on photos because there are less quality loss in PNG.
@Rarst – I think the main problem with JPGs is that often, they are compressed, whereas PNGs are often not, therefore their size, even in relatively modest sizes, such as those for blog posts, are quite large (200KB+), whereas a JPG will be kept under 100KB until it reaches a certain size (although less quality).
For the most part, it is all about your personal preferences and how fast-loading you want your site (due to compression).
I hardly ever use gifs, mostly because their size is only small for basic coloured images, and for photos they’re not clear enough.
I always optimize images on my site, so I’ll use jpg or png mostly – whichever optimizes to the smallest file size.
Use standard colors, layout and links. Visitors are used to the standard look like blue underline is a link .
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