blurred images on AOL

[swestlake]

See http://www.kashvip.com (under construction)
My images (jpeg & web snap adaptive gif) are blurred by AOL but look fine with other browsers.

Occasionally they look ok with AOL. I get the best results by exporting "gif exact", worst with transparencies.

This question relates to Macromedia Fireworks, not Flash - sorry.
I'd be grateful for help.

[swestlake]

See http://www.kashvip.com (under construction)
My images (jpeg & web snap adaptive gif) are blurred by AOL but look fine with other browsers.

Occasionally they look ok with AOL. I get the best results by exporting "gif exact", worst with transparencies.

This question relates to Macromedia Fireworks, not Flash - sorry.
I'd be grateful for help.

[ivca]

Hi swestlake

I've heard that AOL (browsers) further compress (already compressed?) images for faster loading. I haven't seen the results or compared examples (here's what it might look like). I'm sure it wreaks havoc on web designers' product that in most cases, have been optimised for file size already. Thier "need for speed" it seems, is at the expense of the original designers vision clean web graphics.
You could ask your audience (if they feel inclined) to follow these steps:

1) Click "My AOL" or "Member Preferences"
2) Click "Set Up Now"
3) Click "Preference Guide"
5) Click "Set Up Now"
6) Click "The Web" or "AOL Internet Properties"
7) Click "Web Graphics".
8) Click to remove the check from "Use Compressed Graphics"
.... (In some versions click to put a check by "Use Uncompressed Graphics" )
9) Click "Save" or "Apply"
________________________________________________
Yes, content is still "KING" ... but it doesn't have to look like crap either.

My 2 cents... hope that helped [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]

Wayne

[This message was edited by ivca on June 01, 2001 at 20:10.]

[mom_de_bomb]

AOL does have a need for speed because it sucks [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
It takes as long to close a window as it does to load it. They brag about 6.0 and we did upgrade, but we use 4.0 whenever possible because 6.0 is so damn slow. Just keep it in mind that your work will look bad on AOL, even if you change your preferances, many of the people visiting your site won't have done that. Our work always looks great on our own computers, it's the rest of the world that's seeing it with the wrong compression, uncalibrated monitors etc...

Your site looks great btw.

Sharon P.
www.fischerpassmoredesign.com

[Stinger]

the web site looks nice. I wouldn't recommend using the "absolute" positioning with the image on the "About Us" page because it covers up part of the text (on the IE 5.5 browser anyway). Other than that, it's a very simple and "straight to the point" layout and I like it.

Good luck [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[Calysta]

AOL does in fact re-compress fgraphics using Johnson/Grace compressors to get an additional bandwidth savings. When you are pushing Terabytes of data across a network, a small savings per image can make a huge difference.

Yes, it results in additional loss. That's life. Don't like it? You'll need to find another ISP. Word of warning though... Prodigy, Earthlink and many others alo use this re-compression technology for similar network savings.

[CTAOE]

There is an alternate plug-in for AOL on the Macromedia site.