How to reduce image size, loading times, and bandwidth with two clicks
I’m willing to bet that the one factor slowing down your websites is image size. Optimizing your images can reduce your loading time, and if you have an image-heavy site, can reduce the bandwidth usage, potentially saving you cash on your hosting.
If you save images using Photoshop, then the File>Save for Web and Devices dialogue can save you a little memory with your images, but there’s only so much it can do.
Punypng is a free web service that promises great lossless reductions, (more so than smush.it even!) of up to 44% reduction…it supports .jpg, .gif, and .png, and dirty transparency. Check out their benchmarks for a side-by-side comparison.
This entry was written by , posted on October 16, 2009 at 4:36 pm, filed under Words and tagged edit, image, load, web design. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
My Portfolio website now live…
After a lot of hard work, auto-didactic self-discipline, and cups of tea, I’ve managed to finish and upload my portfolio website. I had designed several self-promotional pieces, but was hanging fire with the printing and distribution until my folio site went online.
Well, the wait is over…as of this friday, http://xanderashwell.co.uk is now live!
(I strongly suggest you check out the hire page too, if not only because I’m wearing a fetching little number on that page)
I’ll now be concentrating on thonlyshape.com, my new zine, featuring loads of creative geniuses.
I’ll also be revamping this blog at some point, as I hate having a generic theme.
This entry was written by , posted on October 11, 2009 at 8:52 pm, filed under Images and tagged freelance, graphic design, photography, portfolio, website, xander. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Snow Leopard OS 10.6 on Macbook Pro
If, like me, you own and love your Macbook Pro, then most likely you’re looking at installing Snow Leopard soon, if you haven’t already.
The sensible way to install Snow Leopard is to get Time Machine to back up all your files just before you upgrade to Snow Leopard, use the Install Disc to run a fresh install, and then restore your files using Time Machine. It takes half an hour longer than an upgrade, but it’s worth it, trust me.
Snow Leopard is a welcome new OS upgrade…It smoothly and silently supports 64bit processing, it’s been ported to Cocoa, and makes native apps launch and run like Usain Bolt.…and it frees up about 6GB from your harddrive.…not bad eh?
However…
I spent a few days wrestling with my Macbook after the upgrade, and it was obvious something was up…opening itunes took literally hours, forget about any Adobe software…and I could tell just from listening to my Macbook Pro that the processor was working overtime just to provide the Finder interface.
After some detective work through console and Terminal, I discovered that a preference list file called coreaudiod (path /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.audio.coreaudiod.plist ) was eating up virtual memory all the time. If your macbook is having a simlar problem, there’s a pretty simple solution: delete it, and restart your Macbook…problem solved!
Enjoy Snow Leopard!
This entry was written by , posted on October 6, 2009 at 4:34 pm, filed under Words and tagged apple, hack, mac, macbook, snow leopard. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
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