Testing load

[Snowdonia]

<img src="http://www.ulujain.org/temp/newsig.gif" border="0" alt="" />Looking for some feedback on the loading time of this animation. The file size seems a bit large to me but in this day and age, maybe I'm just paranoid. If the load time is considerate for some I won't be using it but if all of the feedback is favorable, of course I will. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />LMK

[Sapphirius]

The load seems fine to me, but then, I'm not on dial-up.

[Wyrmypops]

<p>Seems good to me too. On a very low and cheapo broadband connection.</p><p>Also refreshing to see something that doesn't presume the viewer is a slow reader. <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />  </p>

[Seagoat]

<p>Loads fine for me, but I have cable.  <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>I've done a load of animated sigs, and while the nature of the beast is to wind up with a large (comparatively) file size, there are always things you can do to trim the final product up as much as possible without losing too much quality.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Things like decreasing the color count and removing a few frames can drop the filesize dramatically.</p><p>I try to keep my animations below 300k if at all possible, but the lower the better.  There is a line, however, where the sacrifice in quality becomes too much; in those instances, I just resign myself to the larger file size and hope no one minds.  <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>For comparison, yours is almost 700KB; my <a href="http://eq2.lunaclick.net/galleries/animations.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">animations gallery</a> lists each file's size, many of which are 250KB or below.</p>

[Snowdonia]

So another question, and I read your (Seagoat) sig FAQ before posting this but found nothing to note a specific size, what would be the max size a sig file should be? What would be too big?

[Seagoat]

<p>Once upon a time, there were some sig "rules" stickied at the top of the old Sigs forum.  In that post, it was stated that sig files should be no larger than 150KB, along with a few other common sense guidelines.</p><p>(You can see it in the top portion of <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=346689" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this post</a>.  Those rules weren't "officially" reposted after the forum software switch, but I may see if one of the mods can repost and sticky it.  Several folks have been asking what's allowed and disallowed, and some basic guidelines might be useful.)</p><p>IMO/IME, while 150KB might be hard to stick to with many animated sigs, it's nevertheless a good target to aim for.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  My static JPEG sigs usually run around 50 to 65KB, depending on the amount of detail and how much I can compress it without things getting messy.</p><p>HTH!  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>