Is there a significant performance issue (either client side or server side) when scaling down large images using html?

Significant, that would depend on the original file. Essentially what's happening here is the browser has to load the original file, which could be say 3100 x1600 and 3megs in size, it will THEN reduce it to what you specified. I consider it a definite 'best practice' and implement it on every project I work on.

-Quote Do not serve images that are larger than the dimensions used in the pages that reference them. The actual dimensions of an image should match those that you specify in the containing page. Quote- This from GoogleCode.

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