Why not just One BIG Picture?

I had a student ask me once,

"Why don't we just design web pages in Photoshop and then load the picture as the whole page. It would look so much better!"

I stammered on about file size but I don't think I was very convincing as the student countered with,

"What about slicing the image up Mr. G? Huh! What about that? The files would be smaller!"

I answered with that sly teacher ploy,

"Wasn't that the bell?"

Wish I had this article, PSD to Web Page which is much more articulate than I in explaining why it is better to use good html/css design. In a nutshell, the reasons one big image is less desirable are:

1. Requires tables to hold sliced images.
2. Hard to manage and update.
3. And a biggie....not search engine friendly.

I am so much smarter if I get one or two months to think about my answers. I wonder why my students never understood how clever I am?

Mischook, Stefan. "PSD to Web Page." Killersites.com Blog. 20 Sep 2007. Killersites.com. 22 Sep 2007 .
[Image: Ruminer, David . "Scary Monster Man." Private Collection. 2005.]