About .jpg

[Sandy Fleming]

Val & everybody,

These days there's a good alternative to .gif, which is .png. There aren't
any legal issues with this as it was deliberately developed so that people
could avoid the legal problems with it.

It's actually a much better format - for example, not only does it preserve
all information, it also looks the same on PCs and Macs (.gifs look darker
on PCs than they do on Macs). It also has better transparency features
though that's not too relevant to SignWriting (unless you're doing a really
fancy web page with it!).

I think the only reason .png isn't popular is that not all browsers support
it - and I suppose also because people are just used to .gifs. Things should
get better as software advances, however.

But .pngs would be a good alternative to .gifs as long as it doesn't give
anyone problems due to having to use software that doesn't "know" the
format.

As I understand it, it's OK to just convert to .gifs using, say, Photoshop
or Paint Shop Pro, like we're doing, since these programs were written using
the appropriate licenses. It's only when you're actually writing your own
software to create .gifs that you have to get a license (which explains the
problem with SWDOS).

Sandy

> -----Original Message-----
> From: SignWriting List [mailto:SW-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA]On Behalf Of
> Valerie Sutton
> Sent: 02 October 2003 16:56
> To: SW-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
> Subject: Re: About .jpg
>
>
> SignWriting List
> October 2, 2003
>
> Sandy Fleming wrote:
> > So use .gif for SignWriting!  :)
>
> Dear SW List, and Sandy and Nana -
> Thank you, Sandy, for helping everyone with the JPEG and GIF
> issues...wonderful to have help!
>
> I agree, of course, that when it comes to small SignWriting diagrams,
> that GIF is best, for me at least. The problem is that some software
> does not include a way to create GIFs, since CompuServe, which created
> the GIF format, has had some restrictions on software developpers...it
> is a matter of us working it out with them...and not all graphics
> programs have done that...so for example, MicroSoft Paint does not
> always have a way to create a GIF...it depends on the version you have
> of that software etc...meanwhile JPEGs are always available, so it may
> be that Nana doesn't have the capability to create a GIF?...
>
> And that is ok...since both JPEGs and GIFs work fine, when posting to
> the SW List...
>
> Years ago, when we were developing the EXPORT feature in SignWriter, we
> wanted to create an EXPORT to GIF from SignWriter, but there were some
> legal restrictions from CompuServe. But there were none for exporting
> to BMP...so we chose the later, since as a small, non-profit
> organization, it was simply easier for us...but it is my hope that
> someday, at least from SignWriter Java, we can add a feature for
> exporting to GIF, JPEG and a variety of other formats...directly from
> SignWriter.
>
> Val ;-)
>