• Choosing images
• Adjusting Images
• Optimising Images
• Text Layout Styles
• Adding Media Files

Choosing images

Choosing images that compliment your website's professional content and underpins its message, takes careful thought. A perfectly chosen image can make a site stand out from its competitors.

Sourcing images

• Professional images can be found by our web team from stock image banks or shot especially by experienced photographers, such as the ones we have on retainer. Specialists can be made available for different styles including fashion and product photo shoots. Your web project is likely to have a photo sourcing budget included. We have a list of cheap low cost stock image resources here
• Images taken in-house can be perfectly suitable, especially if some effort is made to shoot frames creatively, with image editing being implemented to clean up any of their failings. Our skilled staff are on hand to add the professional touch.

Supporting the message

Choosing images that fit in with your corporate style whilst underpinning their surrounding text content is essential. Images slow a pages download, subsequently they should be worthy of their inclusion and not just a page filler. Colours and styles should compliment each other.

Our team add search engine friendly accessibility code to all images, as does a feature in our content management system (CMS), as used by our CMS clients.

Image layout and size

Images can look awkward if their size, proportions and backgrounds do not match, additionally a poorly chosen layout can give the impression that they have been added in haste. Optimising the file size of images is essential for speedy downloads.

Manipulating images can take a great deal of skill, and our graphics department are at your service. However, some more basic adjustments can be carried out by anyone familiar with desktop programs. Try this free program. or search the Google search engine for free programs here. We cannot guarantee the functionality of these programs and they are downloaded at your own risk. We also offer a free crop tool to clients (will not accept massive files).

Not all companies have creative personnel in-house, our web designers will be on hand and can offer a content maintenance program for areas our content management clients wish to outsource.

How big can images be in file size?, answered here

Using images

Each image you use increases the time it takes for the viewer to download your web page. Thankfully broadband has diminished the delay enormously, allowing for some nice designs, however one should still be careful.

This is especially the case with email marketing or newsletters, a service we offer here.

If professionally developed, images will not be attached to the message however they will still need downloaded from the web, when viewed.

Some modern email programs invite users to accept images, and on the odd occasion some are over strict on what they accept. This is just something that needs to be accepted, especially as the content may not be generating the "spam" response and it may happen with just a line of text. Effort is better spent on making your messages welcomed by the recipients, rather than trying to get past such ever changing software.

Different email packages also display images slightly differently. Forcing a need to balance between simplicity and design. Again this is just a feature of the technology and few viewers will experience difficulty.

For high profile marketing, a web version of an email can be made, to cover all bases, at an additional fee. A link to this web page would then be added to the message. Our CMS allows our clients to make such content for free, for those on a budget.

What to do next

If your site could be improved with our assistance, please contact us on 0845 330 2550 to discuss the best way forward.

Looking good

Most people can tell if an image looks professional or it looks like it was taken by an amateur. Our designers can make the difference by editing your image