As you've probably seen on the Web, images download and display top-to-bottom. However, the second-or-two wait for the full image to render can lose the attention of your Web visitor. Fortunately, there is an easy-to-use alternative that immediately displays a low-resolution version of an image and gradually displays the full image as the download completes. As you can imagine, this creates an illusion of a faster download.

To set your images to display as we described, simply save your images in the interlaced GIF or PNG format. To do so, launch Adobe Photoshop and open your image. Then, choose File, Save For Web. In the resulting dialog box, select GIF or PNG-8 or PNG-24 from File Type list box in the Settings section. Then, select the Interlaced check box and click OK. Next, name your file and click Save.

To test the Web display of your saved image, open a Web browser and enter the image file path in the Address field. As you'll see, a low-resolution version of the image appears first. In the next second, the full-resolution version appears.