Why do people slice up images created in Adobe Photoshop CS3 or Illustrator for

Question: Why do people slice up images created in Adobe Photoshop CS3 or Illustrator for web pages!?

I am a college student!. My focus is web design!. I have been building pages using Abode Dreamweaver CS3 for quite some time now!. Now we are about to get into the chapters about building a web page using Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Illustrator CS3!. I have already used Adobe Illustrator CS3 to design the actual page!. Now I need to what is the significance in slicing up the design after I have created it!. Can someone please help me!?!?!?!?!?!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

One primary reason you want to slice it up:

To help the page load faster!

Now your next question: Why does it load faster!?

Many, many reasons!. Here are a few (in very basic terms):

Lets say you have a multi page Web site, where the content is different but the banner is always the same!. Once you load the home page and all its slices, including the banner graphic, the images go into cache!.!.!.so that when you click on a second page, the banner image would not have to be downloaded again!.

Another reason!.!.!.lets say you have a lot of "white" space in your design!. Instead of having to save an image file that's 100 x 100 px of nothing but white, Dreamweaver or other program will condense that slice down to a 1 x 1 px image and then expand it to the 100 X 100 size by using straight html or css code!.

There are many more benefits other than the above!.!.!.but those are the two main reasons you would want to slice up an image!.

Good luck!.
John!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

john is right, slicing cuts down loading time a ton!. i'd imagine slicing is on it's way out as adobe will dominate the market with flash!. most designers will use flash for most designing and building once adobe starts piecing dreamweaver and flash into a more integrated program!.!.!.much like what bridge is doing!.Www@QuestionHome@Com