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.png vs .gif which are you using and why ?

bugsmi0bugsmi0
edited August 2006 in Vanilla 1.0 Help
this has been an interesting subject covered all over the web but even though some prefer png over gif I still see many of the better site designs still using .gif i'm thinking there's a good reason for this ,I myself am considering switching back to .gif it renders so much better accross the board, what do you use ?

Comments

  • NickENickE New
    I use whichever format best suits my needs. gif has a limited palette, but compresses well while png supports more colors but often turns out larger than gif. Hence, I use gifs for simply colored logos/icons/diagrams, pngs for smaller photos/images and jpeg for larger ones.
  • icoutoicouto
    PNG is an open format which supports all the features of GIF, and much more - such as alpha transparency on true RGB pictures. So there is a lot that you can do with PNGs that you cannot with GIFs - ex., you can have a relative-positioned floating picture of an object, casting a soft drop shadow on your background. PNG is also an open format, while GIF isn't. As far as I know - and I could be wrong - the main reason why many web designers choose GIF instead of the (better) PNG is simply because Internet Explorer will only start to support PNG in version 7.0. So, in every current version of Internet Explorer, if someone uses a PNG with transparency, IE makes a dog's breakfast out of it. Moral of the story: currently, if you are designing for Mac/Linux users, or PC users that use a decent browser - like FireFox - then you can use the better PNG format. If your audience is Windowphiles using Internet Explorer 6.0 or below, well, you might be safer to stick to GIF.
  • Max_BMax_B New
    Every piece of software coming out the M$ factory is a crap, ten years back the state of the art. This PNG transparency is a pitiful example, as is the CSS handling. Just look at the list of unsuported features and cry trying to make a clean cross-browser stylesheet.
  • WallPhoneWallPhone
    I believe the patent on lzw compression that made .gif proprietary has expired, but png is a superior format designed for web use.

    Only fault (when compared to .gif) is not with itself, but with how it is handled by IE.
  • KrakKrak New
    edited August 2006
    Recently it has been PNG. I do use GIF when I want a nice small image, or if it is something super simple and doesn't really require better quality. But overall I prefer PNG, it just looks better. But PNG images are much larger. I guess it depends on what I want, file size, or image quality.

    I could really give a shit about it being (or not being) an "open format" whatever the hell that is suppose to mean.

    There are work arounds for IE being the pos it is with PNGs, I use the one found here http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bobosola/. So far it has been working for me.
  • bugsmi0bugsmi0
    png doesn't hold well in firefox, notice a color change every time
  • DraganBabicDraganBabic
    I use PNG, but I hate it because IE always "darkens it" a bit (I think it's an IE issue bugsmi0), so I sometimes need to give IE alternate GIFs. The same issue I find with Safari.
    The reason I say I thnk it's an IE (and Safari) issue and not Fx is because if you compare them in photoshop Fx will get it right, these other two won't.
  • Max_BMax_B New
    About color, it's a matter of taking care of embeded Colorsync profile. Some browser does other not. The problem is that most designer calibrate for IE which does NOT. So browser implementor face te choice of using Colorsync (as they should) and be shifted from the IE calibration or stay "standard". Safari is "standard" (not checked it recently) and that's too bad since Apple systems cope with Colorsync for ages.
  • Rowan LewisRowan Lewis
    As far as I'm aware, the discolouration only happens when using Photoshop, other tools like The GIMP produce images which display the same way across all browser Another thing The GIMP does better is let you save PNGs without all the extra information that Photoshop uses, its for this reason that most people think PNGs are always larger than GIFs of the same quality. Its for these reason that while I do most of my work in Photoshop, I always use The GIMP for image slicing, or just re-saving to get rid of whatever Photoshop did to the colours.
  • KrakKrak New
    GIMP is a four-letter word.
  • WandererWanderer
    Rowan, your experience is a new one on me.
    The only hassles I have is with dud video cards and drivers on Windows.
This discussion has been closed.