The ideal size for tiling images?

[helloworld]

hey forum,
I'm just curious.. what do you guys try to size tiling images to?
I've always used 50px as a rule (obviously this doesnt work for every situation).
Anyway.. lately this has been seeming small to me. Does the quick load-time for the 50px image still make up for browsers rendering it that many more times? What do you think?

 

[indradoang]

I've never tile image both horizontal and vertical. I always use one of them and use the smallest size of the image that i can draw. I cut/crop it efectively and optimized it as well

 

[che09]

Cutting and Cropping one large photo into few smaller different pictures,would be a good idea!

 

[Brian Angel]

Interesting responses... Anyhow it all depends on the effect I'm trying to pull off. Sometimes I will go as big as 400px for heavy textured backgrounds as I don't want it to seem too repetitive.... As long as the load time on export stays below 2 sec, I'm a happy camper as a rely on CSS alot.

 

[Phreaddee]

have to agree with brian there, in that there is no hard and fast rule.
a gradient id do as a few px slither
a repeating pattern - depends on the pattern - but generally no larger than 100px square.
textured background - 400-600 px and full screen no smaller than 1200px.

but this all depends on the load time. anything more than a few seconds will need a rethink.

 

[helloworld]

helew again,
I guess I was a little vague.. I know some cases call for large tiling images.

I mean for, say, a tiling shadow or repeating background gradient.. what is the IDEAL size you use, when you have the freedom to choose?

I've been using 50px as my standard for forever. Is it time to make it larger?

 

[helloworld]

So I know this is an old post.. but I'm not satisfied with the answers yet! Since this thread opened.. I've been using closer to 75-100px for this.

Also, monitors are getting bigger now.. so load time can be more effected by the browser rendering the tiles even, no?

again..
Is 50x50px too small for a minimum tile size?
Like for a simple horizontal gradient..?

thanks guys!

 

[Nathan Joshua]

So I know this is an old post.. but I'm not satisfied with the answers yet! Since this thread opened.. I've been using closer to 75-100px for this.

Also, monitors are getting bigger now.. so load time can be more effected by the browser rendering the tiles even, no?

again..
Is 50x50px too small for a minimum tile size?
Like for a simple horizontal gradient..?

thanks guys!

As small as possible without destroying the effect you are going for. While also bringing file size into consideration