Graphical images definitely help enliven your web pages, if they are used properly. There are basically three types of graphic design images available on the Internet these days. They are the GIF (Graphical Interchange Format), JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) and PNG (Portable Network Graphics).

The GIF graphical design images dont lose any detail when compressed or decompressed and are thus perfect for hand-drawn art, icons, logos and headlines. The JPEG graphic design images are more efficient than the GIFs for compressing large images but may sometimes lose details when saved and viewed. The PNG graphic design images are a compromise between the GIF and JPEG formats. They are an excellent choice, but are not accepted by the earlier browsers.

There are a few programs that are best used to create web graphical images like Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Fireworks and Jasc Paint Shop Pro. Color plays an important part in graphical presentations. It is always better to use colors that go well together to produce better graphic art images. Moreover, there are also certain colors that should be used in your graphical designs when you want to signify certain moods or themes of the site. Like for dignity, purple is better and for sites related to technology, silver is the best choice.

When creating web pages with graphics, the file size of the graphical design has to be taken into consideration. If the file is too big, it takes a longer time to download, wherein the visitor to your site will just log off to go to some other site! So prepare graphical designs that are reasonably sized- not beyond 300 pixels in width or height. It is always better to avoid background images while building a web page. This is because this slows the downloading, and in most cases, makes the type difficult to read. It is better to have web pages with graphics that are repeated over again as once a graphic is downloaded, it is stored in the visitors cache. So the next time the graphical image is used, it loads faster. Moreover, repeating graphic design image as logos, navigation buttons or through banners adds an element of consistency in the site.

When creating a web page with graphical images, you can easily get free graphical images from numerous websites on the Internet. All you have to do is to visit the website, and you can choose some nifty animated graphical images to liven your web pages and even a service to crunch your websites graphical images to help them load faster.