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88x31 Buttons
 

 
     
 
  88x31 Buttons...

[06 October 2020]

 
It's quite popular, on Neocities, to collect buttons. Here are some tips, advice, and suggestions for both creating, sharing, and collecting.
  • The popular dimensions for buttons is 88x31 pixels. Just like this:


5KB png

  • You should share your buttons in this format or other common formats only, with careful consideration.
  • Consider compression and a suitable file format, such as gif when using a reduced colour palette (or animation), or compressed jpg. A png might be preferable. Consider the final file size.


4KB gif

  • These considerations are important when we appreciate that they may exist on a page with many other buttons where loading times will be hampered.

Example:

I have a collection of 80 buttons taking up less than 1MB, but they range in size from 1KB to 300KB

  • When finding a button that you want to use, do not "hot link" it. Hotlinking is where you simply refer to where that file is hosted, rather than saving it to your own domain. It is considered bad practice as it can put a strain on the host, or cause the page that has to load from different locations to take longer to do that.*
  • Create a folder/directory at your website for your buttons (you can call it something like 'buttons' or 'links'. I have a page called 'Friends'. Create your page so that it refers to the images in this location.
  • Create your buttons with a helpful filename such as giving it your website's title, rather than just calling it 'button'. If you're copying someone else's button to use on your website, consider changing the filename to something useful if they haven't done so.
  • If you have a lot of buttons, consider categorising them across different pages rather than having them displayed all on one. One large page might have trouble loading all of those buttons.

If you have any ideas or opinions about this topic of website Buttons, then please get in touch.

 

Links & Further Information:

How-did-the-odd-size-of-88x31-become-a-standard-for-a-website-button

*There might be an argument for hotlinking in the case of Neocities, since a Neocities server could load the same image to each page that requests it, but this benefit is likely assuming Neocities uses only one server, or even one drive within that server. You can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inline_linking

Another point about hotlinking is that it's now more of an issue when the file changes or is deleted, leaving a broken/missing image.
 

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