On Wednesday, June 30, 2004, at 10:43 AM, Tim Lucas wrote:
I know that for Gecko based browsers background images defined in stylesheets (inline or linked) are deferred from loading until they are asked to display themselves. This also helps because many style sheet rules containing images often don't apply to the elements of the current page.
In contrast, I've noticed that images called by css files (as div backgrounds) *all* download in IE and Safari on Mac (not sure about IEWin) - which is why I stopped using a single css file for multiple pages with different images. The first-time download wait is horrendous. Zeldman was using images in div backgrounds for his page headers a while back, and his Home page was loading the header graphics for 3 or 4 other pages too... He stopped doing so with his next redesign...
The advantage, of course, is that when you navigate to a page for which the image file has already downloaded, it renders instantly - but I equate that with waiting for a Flash download to give instant access to an entire interface. I'd rather see elements downloaded only as they're needed to actually display.
I write separate css files for calls for image files and link to them from the html pages as needed. Clumsy, but faster for the visitor...
Not sure if this getting OT - I think not, as bandwidth and site speed is one of the aims of Standards?
Nick ___________________________ Omnivision. Websight. http://www.omnivision.com.au/
*****************************************************
The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/
See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
for some hints on posting to the list & getting help
*****************************************************
