Big graphics, tiny brain.

[splatterbatt]

I am attempting to put my copywriting portfolio up on the web and the images need to be very large in order to read them and therefore, I fear, will take forever to download.

For example, if you scanned a full page of Rolling Stone magazine and tried to post it on the web, actual size, how would you do that? I can't take any of the pieces apart (text, photos, etc.) cuz I only have the finished product.

Any suggestions? I am a total novice too so feel free to speak as if to a child. A small, stupid one.

THANK YOU!

[origamij]

If you have a good graphics program, you might take the image and make a thumbnail picture of it that will click thru to the full size image you your main page will load fast without huge graphics and they will still be accesible for viewing.
your main image will probably still take a few minutes to load on slower connections but you can help minimize the time by setting the image as a .gif instead of a .jpeg also you can set the clickthru to open just the image instead of actually building a page for it an example of this can be seen at http://flodderkids.8m.net/photoalbum.html
I'm working on the page so it may be a little slow but hover over any pic and look at the bottom left of your screen. Notice the address is to cgi not html.
don't know if this helps or not I'm kind of a novice too.

[Dr. Web]

Go ahead and make thumbs of your work, that link to larger images. This way the thunbs will load with lighning speed, and the user will know that by clicking the thumb they are loading a full size version...taking longer to load. Other options...I wouldn't suggest saving a JPG as a gif, GIF is for text, and drawings....JPG for more photos reproduction. Using a good photo editing software package like PhotoShop will allow you to test a number of compression settings(makes the file smaller, while trying to maintain the quality of the pic) before you save it.

[Jason]

Make sure you decrease the color depth on the large scale version, that can save you quite a bit of kb, especially if you can get down to 16 colors!