Large Images slowing down front page load

[kentfredric]

Front page has ~1.5MB of images which can take as much as 17 seconds to load.

Excerpt from analysis:

Compress Images: 86/100

1,305.9 KB total in images, target size = 1,125.0 KB - potential savings = 181.0 KB

WARNING - (212.7 KB, compressed = 175.2 KB - savings of 37.5 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/anewkirk/anewkirk_profile_fb.jpg
WARNING - (130.8 KB, compressed = 97.7 KB - savings of 33.0 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/jtingson/jtingson_profile_trello.jpg
WARNING - (106.2 KB, compressed = 76.2 KB - savings of 29.9 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/mpersico/mpersico_profile_fb.jpg
WARNING - (78.6 KB, compressed = 56.1 KB - savings of 22.5 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/knayan/knayan_profile_fb.jpg
WARNING - (70.1 KB, compressed = 51.9 KB - savings of 18.2 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/psergeant/psergeant_profile_fb.jpg
WARNING - (74.3 KB, compressed = 63.2 KB - savings of 11.2 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/aruzhnikov/aruzhnikov_profile_github.jpg
WARNING - (32.8 KB, compressed = 26.1 KB - savings of 6.7 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/athakur/athakur_profile_fb.jpg
WARNING - (26.4 KB, compressed = 21.8 KB - savings of 4.6 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/jtrujillo/jtrujillo_profile_fb.jpg
WARNING - (26.7 KB, compressed = 23.2 KB - savings of 3.5 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/kberov/kberov_profile_fb.jpg
WARNING - (43.8 KB, compressed = 40.7 KB - savings of 3.2 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/akarelas/akarelas_profile_github.jpg
WARNING - (42.9 KB, compressed = 40.0 KB - savings of 2.9 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/dvergin/dvergin_profile_github.jpg
WARNING - (22.0 KB, compressed = 19.2 KB - savings of 2.7 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/mislam/mislam_profile_fb.jpg
WARNING - (16.7 KB, compressed = 14.8 KB - savings of 1.9 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/kmanohar/kmanohar_profile_fb.jpg
WARNING - (35.9 KB, compressed = 34.4 KB - savings of 1.5 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/kfredric/kfredric_profile_github.jpg
WARNING - (34.9 KB, compressed = 33.5 KB - savings of 1.5 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/wbraswell/wbraswell_profile_github.jpg

Use Progressive JPEGs: 73/100

743.9 KB of a possible 1,018.1 KB (73%) were from progressive JPEG images

FAILED (74.3 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/aruzhnikov/aruzhnikov_profile_github.jpg
FAILED (43.8 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/akarelas/akarelas_profile_github.jpg
FAILED (42.9 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/dvergin/dvergin_profile_github.jpg
FAILED (42.2 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/zmughal/zmughal_profile_github.jpg
FAILED (35.9 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/kfredric/kfredric_profile_github.jpg
FAILED (34.9 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/wbraswell/wbraswell_profile_github.jpg
Info (3.9 KB) - http://cloudforfree.org/static/cms-uploads/user-profile-pics/ssat/ssat_profile_github.jpg

The only real way to make these images smaller is to compress them aggressively, or use smaller images.

Currently the transmitted images are physically much larger than they're displayed at, and are being downscaled by the browser, ( creating CPU usage as well, further slowing the load )

http://www.webpagetest.org/result/161227_0K_ZNE/1/performance_optimization/