Preserved Topic: Best way to preload a site (images)?

Heya,

lets say I wanna create a website with themes - meaning that a user can choose how the site will look (background colors, logo change etc.) by selecting from a dropdown menu. A bit like znippets.com actually. I'll then have a pretty large "header" which includes the logo and a photo-kinda background which will probably be more than 1600px in width, supporting large resolutions.

Obviously I'm talking about headerimages of a pretty big size and I want it to change themes smoothly when the user selects it. So far my only solution seems to be some kinda image preloader, or maybe even a site preloader. You know...with a progress bar that says "loading site.....72%....84%...". But im not sure whether thats the best way or not.

What do you guys think?

Whats the best way to preload images like this?

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

Well the main purpose was actually "only" to preload the huge photoimages, so that the change of theme would be as fast as possible. I know the browser keeps the images loaded in its cache once they've been loaded one time. It was mainly to avoid a longer loading session when choosing another theme.

Of course I could just load every photoimage on the frontpage using <img src="photo1.jpg" width=1 height=1> tags but im not sure if thats good or not.

Suggestions for image-compressing without loosing quality would be greatly appreciated too

Why does the header have to be one huge image?

This web site has a garphical header that will expand to any resolution. Pay attention to how the header loads: http://ghostrecon.ubisoft.fr/index.php

Making headers like this would be one way to cut down the file size.

Something to start on maybe...

Dracusis,

as far as i can see, the background image is a loopimage, explaining the short loading time. Then afterwards the soldierimage gets added on top of it. Surely i could do the same on some themes, but some photos are just too complicated to make into a loopimage.

But the header doesnt *have* to be one image only. It was just to make the dynamical themechange (stylesheets) easier instead of adding 4+ background images to it