Re: PNG (was [ProgSoc] the gimp)

[Telford Tendys <telford@nospam.progsoc.uts.edu.au>]

> Can anyone suggest a course of action for a sensible transition? I mean,
> Netscape 3 will be around for while, considering how many computers
> there are around that won't handle the fancy bloated new browsers. I'd
> hate to exclude these people in designing web pages like intel is trying
> to with its pentium3 nhanced sites. At the same time, it seems that PNG is
> the better format, and worth supporting. Any ideas?

* Use JPEG for as many things as you can get away with. For example,
  some bluring in a page background doesn't matter in the least so always
  use JPEG for backgrounds.

* NEVER use an image to hold text, ever, ever, ever, ever...

* Always put sensible ALT tags on images.

* Don't put in bullshit images like ``long purple bar'',
  believe me when I say that such junk adds nothing to your page
  and ticks off more people than it attracts (I guess that it depends
  on your target audience).

* Grit your teeth and use PNG for the remainder of cases knowing that
  someone has to finally decide to do things the right way and it might
  as well be you.

To be honest, the only situation that I can think of where you need
to use a PNG is where you have a diagram that must have text labels
in exact locations and closely mixed with graphic elements -- a circuit
diagram would be a good example or plotting experimental results.

You could resort to PDF for such situations but that is a bit vomit vomit.

> For what does one have to pay (i.e compression software, decompression
> software, what?)

From memory , all software that can do compression must pay on a per-copy
basis. There are some special exceptions relating to non-commercial software
but these are not GPL compatible so all the GPL tools abandoned the GIF
standard on principle.

	- Tel
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