How do CSS images load?

MicahCarrick · 01-10-2007, 06:17 PM

With an external file sheet, are the images in the css file loaded automatically or are they only downloaded/loaded if they're specified class is used in the document?

trevelluk · 01-11-2007, 07:13 AM

The CSS standard doesn't specify, (although the version 3 draft states "Implementations may optimize by not downloading and drawing images that are not visible"), so I guess its up to the browser. It should be fairly easy to test though, just create some suitable test documents and examine your web server logs for accesses to the file.

MicahCarrick · 01-11-2007, 12:37 PM

Cool thanks. Yeah, I tested in FF2 and it didn't download all the image data.