From: dwilliam@injersey.com (Dave Williams)
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.photoshop,alt.html,alt.html.editors.enhanced-html,alt.html.editors.webedit,alt.html.webedit,alt.www.webguild,comp.graphics.apps.photoshop,comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html
Subject: Re: 256 Colour GIFs
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 09:56:37 -0500

In article <67dfbh$m60$1@cantuc.canterbury.ac.nz>, "Cristian Croitoru"
<c_croitoru@csc.canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:

> >take an image, make it gif AND jpeg (gif at full 256
> >color, jpeg with equivalent of the "medium" quality setting
> >from PhotoShop) - the jpeg will be roughly half the file
> >size of the gif,
> 
> Sorry, I have to disagree.. Take a clipart-like bmp, gif-it and jpeg-it and
> you'll be surprised to find a larger jpeg, even if you set "preserve
> quality" to 70%... and don't forget gif DOES NOT loose quality..

It does if the original RGB has more than 256 colors, or if you reduce a
256-color graphic to fewer colors (as you should, if only to cope with
Netscape's 216-color palette).

IMO, a good goal for GIF colors is 16 colors (4 bit), with 32 colors an
acceptable fallback, and 64 colors if you really need it. More than that is
a waste of bandwidth.

Dave Williams      "A burro is an ass. A burrow is a hole in the
IN Jersey          ground. As a journalist, you are expected to
www.injersey.com   know the difference."   - UPI Stylebook