To paraphrase a well-known saying: a picture is worth a thousand words of bandwidth on the web. Because it takes time for graphics to load you will want to keep graphic file sizes small. Keep in mind that on many modems, 1K = 1 second to download. When you look at the file size of your graphic, don't think "125 K", for example, but "125 seconds."
If you have graphics that are large, consider putting a miniature of that graphic on your page and using that "thumbnail" as a link to the larger graphic. That way your audience can get an idea of what you offer when they see the small graphic and will click on it to see more, willing to wait for the larger file to load.
For example, the thumbnail could be a gif version of the picture that is only 6K, which then links to the larger 45K or 90K jpg version of the picture. It is important that the thumbnail is not merely the large file with dimensions set to be small. It is the file size that matters.
When using a thumbnail keep these two suggestions in mind:
First, do not just link to the graphic file itself. Instead, create another web page with the graphic embedded. Click on each of the following two thumbnails to see the difference.
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Thumbnail Link
It is slightly more work, but the page for the graphic is a much more professional display.
Second, on the page with your large graphic be sure to include a link back to your original page with the thumbnail.
Other comment notes for this unit:
alt tags | dimensions | using
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