The GIFF or GIF format is a very good format for most all line-art, scanned text, or low color content drawings. GIF compresses line art quite well and is the standard graphic format for web pages. This means anyone with a web browser can open and print a GIF file with ease.
On the other hand, digital photographs do not compress much as a GIF file. The newer JPEG format is best for photographs or graphics with lots of detail. JPEG allows you to select variable levels of "quality" vs "compression". This allows compression to be greater when quality is not as critical. Most web browsers also support this format, but early browsers may not. These two formats (IMO) seem most useful. There are a variety of freeware or shareware software packages that could convert many other formats to these two popular formats. (You may not need a converter, GIF is a common export option in many common drawing packages, JPEG in some others.) I suggest readers use internet search engines to locate conversion software as I did. I use a Macintosh, so my suggestions for software will not be very useful to the Win95/Win3.1/DOS world. Regards, Eric Lifsey [email protected]
