lisard_at_zetnet.co.uk wrote:
>
> On 1998-04-01 classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu said to lisard_at_zetnet.co.uk
> :Have you actually checked this? GIF's do compress well, and you are
> :correct on loseless... but if you are just GIFfing the scans, they
> :do *not* compress well. GIFs are just RLE compressed (That's Run
> :Length Encoding for all you non-gfx types out there) and if you
>
> no they aren't - they use a form of lempel-ziv compression, which is why
> they tend to compress anything pretty well. they aren't much good on
> photos, but anything with a small range of colours is meat to the grist.
I'm not an authority here, but according to the author of Image Magick
(Unix freeware), it is not technically legal for graphics software to
generate lempel-ziv compressed GIFs for end users who have not bought a
license to use it. Patent law stuff... next subject ;)
--
mor_at_crl.com
http://www.crl.com/~mor/
Received on Wed Apr 01 1998 - 15:50:27 BST