Using thumbnails and other photos always involves compromise

1
The use of graphics such as photos always leads to a battle about photo quality. The better the quality of the graphic, the slower the download.

In practice, to keep a web page at a reasonable download time, the appearance (and size) of photos is degraded in stages until the acceptable compromise between download speed and quality is attained.

2
Here are some examples of how the tradeoff works.

.JPG at 100% quality = 42K
download time 14 seconds

100% Quality is very good but the download time is unacceptable Note the clarity of the type in GULF WARS and EPISODE II, plus the bright light behind Bush. See how clarity degrades as we reduce photo quality in the examples below.

.JPG at75% quality = 14K
download time 4 seconds

75% Quality is still good and download time is much faster, but not fast enough

.JPG at 50% quality = 9K
download time 3 seconds

50% Quality has degraded to “just below acceptable” and download time is acceptable. A quality setting between 75% and 50% will be the best compromise.

.JPG at 25% quality = 3K
download time 1 second

25% Download time has been cut to one second, but the photo quality has been downgraded too much and is unacceptable. A setting between 75% and 50% will be best for most websites.

3
The physical size of photos and graphics is the predominant factor in keeping download time reasonable.

Fewer, smaller, lower-quality graphics = fast download