arent php images slowing page?

[Anon]

i was just wondering on how fast php creates images with dg library...isnt better to make the images with a paint program and then just link to them? just wondering...

[[deleted]]

Creating images 'on the fly' is nearly always slower than loading a saved image from disk.

But people use PHP to create images so they can change the content of the image dynamically. For example, you can use the GD functions to create an image that contains a graph of the current server-load. You simply cannot do that using a paint program.

If the images don't change, then it is nearly always faster to use a static imagefile on disk. (especially because those images can be cached both by the filesystem, the server and the client)

[Anon]

thanks, i take it that php images should only be used in special cases

[[deleted]]

Correct.

The speed difference between a dynamic image and a static image depends a lot on how complex the dynamic image is.

You should use which ever method is appropriate.

In some cases, people use PHP to create dynamic images, and then same those iamges to disk once a day. The rest of the website then reads the static files from disk. Best of both worlds.