How Much Does File Size of a 512x512 Targa Effects the Load Time

I have been experimenting with creating Text/Type for signage in Illustrator and directly "Export" from Illustrator into a Targa. I noticed that the resulting Targa is 1.5mb verse the same file "save as" Targa from Photoshop at around 450kb. The Illustrator text is of far superior quality over the Photoshop, but I do not want to bog-down people's load times if size is an issue.

Will this elevated file size slow down the load time for a viewer? And, if so, would it be significant?

Thanks

Chosen Few is the real expert on such things, but I suspect that his answer will be that it doesn't make any difference at all. When you upload a TGA file to SL, it is converted into a JPG2000 file. It's THAT file which gets seen by any resident, not your original TGA. If I'm right, then, the only person who will have a slower time with file transfer is you, as you upload the fatter TGA file in the first place.

Rolig's explanation is correct. The texture in SL will be a JPEG2000 copy of your source TGA. It will come out the same size in SL no matter how big or small the source file is.

So, you are saying that if you export a 512x512 Targa from Illustrator, it ends up almost three times as large as the same image exported from Photoshop. That seems strange, unless Illustrator adds a bunch of extra channels for some reason.

I'm guessing the TGA from Photoshop is compressed. If uncompressed, a 512x512 TGA should be 768KB if it's RGB, or 1MB if it's RGBA.

As for why the file comes out so large from Illustrator, my best guess is the exported artwork is actually larger than 512x512. By default, Illustrator exports all the objects on the artboard, not just the ones that are within the canvas borders. So if there's, say, a background rectangle behind the text that is 512x1024, the outputted TGA will also be 512x1024, even if the canvas is only 512x512. (512px x 1024px x 24 bits/px = 1.5 MB)

Stroke widths are included with that, by the way. So if you've got a 512x512 rectangle with a 1px stroke around it, the image will come out 514x514. To keep things exact, always make the stroke 0px on your background rectangle.

I should have mentioned this information in my first response. I didn't read the OP quite carefully enough the first time around, I guess. Obviously uploading a 512x1024 image will result in a larger in-world texture file than uploading a 512x512.

If the exported TGA from Illustrator actually is 512x512px, then I have no idea why the file is so large.

My assumption would be the same reason FreeHand files are bigger, it could be the extra embedded info files from draw applications use so they translate to paint programs smoothly, but then I might be talking out of my ass.