Thumbnails - Just What the Heck are They Exactly?



ITD 110-01L Class WebSite

During this week's class based on images and such, the question came up - "Is there a rule of thumb for the size of thumbnail files?
(No pun intended.)"

What do some major references have to say about thumbnail file size?

See the Table Below for File Sizes Used by Major Web Sites

Reference	Thumbnail Size Mentioned	Link to See More About What They Have to Say
Microsoft Press Learning	80 x 80 pixels	Troubleshooting: Working with Thumbnail Images
Microsoft Office FrontPage	1 inch square and less than 5KB filesize	Creating Thumbnails in FrontPage and PhotoDraw
Microsoft Developer Network	256x256 pixels in 32-bit color	Thumbnail Provider Guidelines
MSDN .NET Framework Developer Center	120 x 120 pixels	Image.GetThumbnailImage Method
PBASE	jpeg 106 x 106 pixels and many, many more	PBASE Example Gallery

Notice that the final reference is PBASE.
I consider PBASE to be "the granddaddy" of the photographic galleries.

Conclusion: there is no rule of thumb for thumbnail file size.

Most Important Points About Use of Thumbnails:

1. Make thumbnails small in size so they load quickly
2. Make thumbnails large enough in resolution to appear clearly on the web
3. Configure thumbnails as links so that the larger image can be viewed.

How Can Thumbnails be Created?

Most photographic editing tools, such as Adobe Photoshop, can be used to save a large file in a smaller size suitable to be used as a thumbnail. On the class web site, in the tools section, there is a link to the tool, "Easy Thumnails".

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