There are many ways to optimize PNG files, but one optimization which is commonly overlooked involves the PNG's transparent background. If you’ve chosen to use PNGs instead of a more compact format like JPG, mainly for the PNG's support of a transparent background (alpha channel), read on and see how dynamic underlays can reduce your file size by as much as 1:5.
Thumbnails of website screenshots are a common visual design element. Search engines, such as Google, display webpage screenshots in their search results. Social news sites, such as DZone, embed screenshot thumbnails of shared pages. Bloggers and technology news sites embed screenshots of company websites and online services they discuss in their posts. Development companies embed screenshots of websites they helped develop.
Website developers and administrators today tend to find themselves managing quite a few files, images and other media assets. Whether you upload content to your web application yourself, allow your users to upload files or have files imported from content partners, you'll need to handle the upload process, storage, and possibly thumbnail creation required to showcase your assets online.
The modern world of mobile applications and dynamic websites is incredibly rich with images.
Major online newspapers are overhauling their UI design with wall to wall photographs. Social network feeds are chock-full of shared pictures, and e-commerce solutions are constantly improving their viewing widgets with additional product images.
Modern web sites and mobile applications frequently showcase a rich set of images with various sizes and dimensions. Such services can even have their graphics, image resolutions and overall look & feel vary between different devices (desktop, mobile, etc.), and may change dramatically with constant upgrades.