GIF vs JPG: PNG? (was Help about Microsoft PowerPoint -Reply

[Dan Lester]

And a little more info on it.  If you want a pretty current text
reference try out Murray and vanRyder's Encyclopedia of
Graphics File Formats, 2nd ed.  (O'Reilly, 96).  The book is
amazing, and for most of us tells more than we ever wanted
to know about such things.  However, it should certainly be
in larger public libraries, almost all academic libraries, and
any special libraries in the computer/is/it fields.

References to .gif start on p.429 and all of the chapter 9
deals with the issues on LZW compression, which is used in
.gif format.  Unisys owns the patent on LZW and is
apparently actively pursuing software producers who write
stuff using .gif formats.  Yup, almost all graphics software,
web browsers, etc.  It'll probably take a while to settle it in
court (next century?), but meanwhile various folks have
sworn them off...both .gif and unisys.  

Yes, .gif can be better in a few places.  IMHO, animated gifs
are not one of them.....but to each his/her own. 
Transparency is indeed a nice feature....and if you can do it
in .jpg I don't know how either (but would love to).  And
though you can reduce the color depth in .gif, how many
people really DO so?  

cheers

cyclops, who tries to avoid religious warfare, but to let people
know about issues they may not be aware of