Preload Images

[chrissyb]

Hello all!

Hope this is not difficult to describe...

I've put together this site www.dreamboysat10.co.uk it has been comped using photoshop so it is made up of slices. I've ensured the file sizes are as small as possible for the individual gifs. Obviously on page load even with a 2meg connection it is 'whoozy', i.e. all the images load at different times etc.

I have at the moment solved the problem by preloading the images with a script on the 'index.htm' page that jumps to the main.htm page. Hey presto problem solved! However obviously if the user clicks into www.dreamboysat10.co.uk/main.htm from their history in the browser it avoids the preload page. I know if they've downloaded the pages the graphics are stored in cache memory - but I'd still rather have a solution where the images are already preloaded.

Okay I know ideally I'd be adding the preload script to the main page, but in spite of the millions of scripts out there I can't get them to work - does anybody have any ideas.

Should I be worrying about the image download time, is it a web design faux pa!?

Thanks in advance

Chris

[Twey]

You should worry about image load time - but only when it gets to about half a minute on a 56k. I don't think this page is a problem.

[chrissyb]

Thanks for the reply, would you just leave the pre load page anyway?

I mean html pages with pre load sequence (i.e. loader bar) are a little bit silly, but if you can disguise it like I have it must be acceptable.

I would just feel happier if I could run the preload sequence from within the site, if that makes sense.

Thanks for your help...

Chris

[chrissyb]

p.s. I think I'm at 9 secs on 56k - but the way FF renders images makes it look a lot worse....

[Twey]

would you just leave the pre load page anyway?

I mean html pages with pre load sequence (i.e. loader bar) are a little bit silly, but if you can disguise it like I have it must be acceptable.

It doesn't seem to be doing any harm. You may as well leave it.