title: Optimum web folder structure for ~250,000 images
body: <p>I will have around 200,000 images as part of my website. Each image will be stored 3 times: full size, thumbnail, larger thumbnail. Full size images are around 50Kb to 500Kb.</p>
  
  <p>Normal tech: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP on a VPS.</p>
  
  <p>What is the optimum way to store these for fast retrieval and display via a browser??</p>
  
  <p>Should I store everything in a single folder?
  Should I store the full size images in 1 folder, the thumbails in another etc?
  Should I store the images in folders of 1000, and keep an index to which folder the image is in?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for any advice.
  Albert.</p>