You can send a message a variety of ways. If the content of the message is all that matters, you can shrink the message size by just sending text. If the format matters (richness of the message), it will take up more space.

Below is a comparison on how we can send the message "NO". The simplest way is just to use two characters (bytes), the letters "N" and "O". As we try to format this to provide additional emphasis, you'll notice the size of the message increases.

• smallest - just two characters - page = 245 bytes
• H1 heading - adds emphasis, and couple bytes for HTML formatting - page = 265 btyes
• MS Word 72 font - Word adds a lot of "overhead" on web pages 21.3 KB
• GIF Image - 3 KB image, page =