Acceptable size (KBs) of a web design?

[Jonathan]

Well, I'm trying to come up with a layout for a new project;
My last two designs were both under 30KBs total.

But I want this to be something to really knock the socks off.
With this in mind, I'm not sure what the "acceptable" size should be.

I want to make sure that it is within acceptable load times for 56K users.
I don't want them to be waiting for a minute for something to load!

I'm thinking around 60KBs... what do you guys say?

[Buddha]

Personally somewhere around 35KB.

Clients always seem to have their own idea.

[Jonathan]

Hmmm... what are some ways to help lower page size?
Even using "Save for Web" in Photoshop ~ I still can't
seem to get very small page designs.

[sdjl]

CSS is pretty useful.
It means if the site is slightly larger than normal, the content will load and show whilst the style sheet is being applied to the design.

[Klaassh]

Johnathon, have a google around for some freeware "Gif Optimizers"/"Jpeg Optimizers". These can knock some size off depending on the image, most of them also compress (when you tell it to) but this is at the expense of quality.
Some are better than others so don't stop at one.

[Lucho]

optimizing jpgs and gifs

Jonathan, Photoshop does a lousy optimizing job. Try the companion program Image Ready. It is far better. Take some time to compare results with different compressions / palettes etc. The Optimize window is quite self-explanatory.
As for the acceptable size, I guess it depends a lot on the type of site. With CSS you can avoid using some images and usually the code is lighter, because you use less tags.

[Pedja]

Jonathan, Photoshop does a lousy optimizing job.

PhotoShop does great job if you use save for web option.

Also, to speed up page loading one should use as less possible graphic elements. It is not just size of elements, number of them also influences the speed. It is also known tht graphic element shorter of 2kb will not load faster.