C O O L P A G E H E L P . C O M - The Official Help Website for Cool Page Users

Types of Images Used on Webpages

Web browsers will display a number of different types of image formats. The most common formats used are .GIF and .JPG.

The rule for using these image formats is:

USE .JPG FOR PHOTO-TYPE IMAGES ANF USE .GIF FOR IMAGES OF TEXT AND LINE ART OF FEWER COLORS.

Web browsers also will display .PNG images, though this format is not used as much yet, as this format is only recently supported in newest versions of all major browsers. The main impetus behind PNG was to avoid the costly Unisys patent on LZW compression which applies to GIF images. This patent mostly impacts software developers, not consumers. The patent expires on June, 2003. Thus most people continue to prefer GIF, for it's wider support and animation capabilities. PNG can hold more colors than GIF, but JPG is usually superior for colorful images.

Note: Not all graphics programs or image editors will create GIF images in the same manner. This applies to regular images as well as animations.

Cool Page implements the Gif89a specification very strictly because some browsers also require exactness. Some GIF graphics programs try to cheat based on what they think will work in most browsers, but we do not like to do things in a risky way, therefore Cool Page will not allow non-standard GIF images to be used on the pages.

If you try to import a GIF onto your page and you get a prompt (example) from Cool Page that says that "this file type is not supported" then realize that the file you are trying to import is a non-standard GIF. However, you can still use the file, but you will have to repair it first.

Repairing GIF Images and Animations

To repair a GIF image (not an animated GIF), follow these steps:

1. Open the GIF image in MSPaint. (Start\Programs\Accessories)
2. Save the image as a Bitmap File (.BMP)
3. Close the MSPaint program.
4. Re-open MSPaint and open the saved Bitmap File.
5. Use File Menu\Save As to save that file as a GIF.

The non-standard GIF will now have been repaired and you should now be able to import the new GIF into Cool Page.

To repair an Animated GIF you will need a software program that specializes in GIF animations. We have found that there is a very good program called GIF Construction Set (Alchemey Mindworks) and this is one of the few programs that will do a good job at converting GIF87 files to GIF89a.

GIF Construction Set Professional

We have also found that Animation Shop, which is a part of Paint Shop Pro, does a decent job at converting GIF animations to the GIF89a format.

Paint Shop Pro

Repairing JPG Images

There is no guaranteed method of repairing a JPG image. Try using the same method described above if your version of MSPaint supports the JPG image format. Otherwise, try using a different graphics program to repair a JPG image.

Note: If you downloaded a GIF animation or image, or a JPG image to put on your page in Cool Page, and you get a warning that the file type is not supported by Cool Page:

Some web browsers have the capability to display non-GIF89a images and some don't. Pages made with Cool Page can be viewed in any web browser and the program will take steps to ensure that your pages will be viewed by anyone, no matter their web browser.