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Another option is to slice
image. Again, most graphics programs offer this feature. You can slice a graphic into as many smaller pieces as you want. Then create a table with cell padding and borders set to 0. Then put each of pieces into table in proper order. These smaller graphics, even though they equal same size as your original one, will load faster than one big graphic.
There is one other little trick, and that's to use same graphic several times on one page. For example, if you have a button for people to order products or services from your site, use same graphic. Don’t have different buttons, like "Order Sweater," "Order Shirt," etc. Just use an "Order Now" button. The browser only loads that button once, and puts it everywhere on page it belongs. You could have 100 of same buttons on a page, and they will all appear in time it takes to load just one button.
After you've created your webpage, optimized and sliced your images, you need to see just how fast it will load at different connect speeds. You can do this easily by going to (AOL members: //watson.addy.com). Just put URL of page you want to test, and they will tell you how fast page will load at various connect speeds. It's fast, easy and and costs nothing.
So remember to think of your visitors first, not your design skills. You may want to show world what a fantastic website designer you are, but if no one sees your page then your efforts are being wasted.
