“Image making” is just as much a part of graphic design as it is of public relations. Image formats such as JPEG, GIF and PNG use both lossy and lossless techniques to present images of very high quality online to be viewed by potential customers and visitors to a site. These image formats are at the client end side of technologies in terms of what can be delivered to a customer’s website. A hosting service may include hosting tips on how to get the best out of the images on a client’s site. If the images could be optimized without a visible reduction in the image’s quality, a hosting service may suggest changes. This is in their interest as it keeps file sizes low on their server. It’s in your interest as your company’s site will be downloaded more quickly and effectively to an end user’s browser and computer. Webmastering and development companies will advocate the formats for those images and graphics of a high quality that will be best rendered in all browsers too. So for example, a photograph that takes up two megabytes of space on a hard drive may be reduced to just 500 kilobytes or less through optimization techniques that don’t impact on the visual quality of the image.

Flash technology may be employed to present a company logo when a customer first arrives at the site: In the meantime, certain elements may potentially be being downloaded in the background so that when a user clicks through onto the homepage, they will be in place. Graphics departments at a web development company will know the tricks to enhance the customer or visitor experience in manners such as those outlined, so that when someone pays a visit to the site, they are not waiting for elements to download and processes are streamlined.