First Meaningful Paint (FMP) is the time it takes for the first part of a web page’s readable or viewable content rendered to the visitor. For example, it can be the paint in which an article title, text, or photo are displayed in the browser window on a user’s screen.
The Dotcom-Monitor Approach to Calculate First Meaningful Paint Time
To execute web page monitoring, Dotcom-Monitor connects to a website using a web browser. During each monitoring session, Dotcom-Monitor takes 10 screenshots of the browser window per second. These screenshots are then used for further comparative analysis.
Once a monitoring session is over, the calculation engine compares each screenshot within the sequence of pictures. The engine then calculates the percentage changes of the content displayed in the sequentially taken pairs of screenshots.
Next, the engine analyzes the calculation results to detect the difference in the percentage change values. The first significant difference between the values is considered as the first meaningful change in the web page content. The screenshot that brought in the first detected meaningful change is considered the First Meaningful Paint, and the time when the screenshot was taken is considered the First Meaningful Paint Time.
