...but... wouldn't it be better to adjust the image size on the server side rather than transmitting the bytes to the browser and doing it there?
When I say adjust the image size, I don't mean set the height and width in the HTML image tag. If you do that, you are still shipping a large number of bytes from server to client. I mean, actually manipulate the image itself server side.
I have .NET C# code here that takes that approach, but there must be a php way to do it too: http://ifdefined.com/www/gallery.html
Also, by doing it server side, that opens up the possibility of doing the adjustment just once and then saving the adjusted image, which would be very fast.