There are several things that I consider when uploading an image on my blog posts. I thought of sharing it here hoping that some people may find it helpful (and of course, I expect some of you to disagree with my views :-)
Keep image file size minimal
In my early days, I made several mistakes with the size of image files. I used to capture screen shots with print-screen followed by a paste into MS Paint which by default saved the image files as BMP files. These files resulted in higher download time and disturbed overall blog viewing experience.
My recommendation is that you save the image files into other formats such as JPG or PNG (PNG is my favorite these days) which will produce relatively smaller file size.
Keep image size (width/height) to minimal
In most cases, we may not need an entire capture of the desktop to demonstrate something. According to me, the image given below is bad.
In a case like above, I would not capture an entire screen. Instead, I would prefer to capture only the specific area that I want to highlight. So my version of the above image will be as follows:
This image is more readable/comprehensible than the original version.
What if we need to show the whole window?
Sometimes we may need to show the entire screen to the user. For example, you may be writing a blog post demonstrating the new features added to the SSMS application. In such a case, you may need to show an entire screen and highlight various parts of the toolbar, status bar, menu etc.
In such a case, I would try to resize the window to the smallest possible size (without loosing the relevant information I am trying to show). For example, the the image given below shows a regular image of the SSMS 2012 window.
A resized version of the above image may look like the example given below. It is much more readable than the version given above.
There are a few more tips I would like to share, which I will write as a follow up post. I hope that some of you may find the information posted above helpful.