> I'm not aware of anyone having concerns over the site's bandwidth usage

As you might expect, I keep a list of references on this topic:

• Re: Add "Image Miniatures" to your HTML by jdporter (2007) - Please DO NOT frivolously Add "Image Miniatures" to your HTML, at least here on PerlMonks. They consume an inordinate about of storage/transmission resources.
• Fun, Emoji and Ascii Art References - lots more references; in particular, Unicode Emojis have been suggested to harangzsolt33 (aka 🔔👳🏽‍♂️🐔) in the past to add levity minus bandwidth concerns ... though he's never used them AFAIK (see Re^4: super slow (Hungarian table tennis) for the origin of the harangzsolt33 🔔👳🏽‍♂️🐔 emoji :)

👁️🍾👍🦟

I can't find a suitable word to describe the downsides of using HTML tables for displaying images here.

But there are alternatives allowing a lot of details without bandwith problems.

• Base64 encoding
• SVG
And less so
• ASCII graphics
I had to use the latter multiple times in the past and it was kind of bothersome moving characters by hitting the bar.

But a nodelet-hack to extend the ability of the local markup to show base64 or SVG could be an easy proof of concept.

Alas I doubt that's our top priority here.

FWIW here a POC:

The Perl Onion as Base64

<Reveal this spoiler or all spoilers in this node or all in this thread>

The Perl Onion as SVG

<Reveal this spoiler>

UPDATE

You can copy either code into your Free Nodelet Settings to see the effect. (Don't forget to activate the free nodelet to be shown in your nodelet tab)

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
see Wikisyntax for the Monastery}