[thelist] AOL and Images

[Michael Stevens]

from the list today (different sandy though...I think :)

> Sandy,
>
>   I have seen one solution floated on other lists, and apparently
> implemented
> successfully.  This fix takes advantage of the fact that AOL will
> convert GIF
> and JPEG files to their highly compressed ART format, but will not convert
> animated GIFs.
>
> <snip source="webmaster.info.aol.com">
> In order for an image to be compressed, it must have the following
> characteristics:
>
>  The user must have compression turned on.
>  The object must be in the BMP, GIF, JPEG, or Progressive JPEG format.
>  The object must not be an animated GIF.
>  The object size must be between 1KB and 8 MB.
> </snip>
>
>   Basically, you take a static GIF, add an indentical frame and
> re-save.  The
> AOL compression scheme will then leave it alone.  Other tweaks
> should work, such
> as a transaparent, 0 second first frame, etc.  Whatever will make the AOL
> software see the image as animated and not increase filesize too
> much.  I don't
> know of a similar workaround for JPEGs.
>
> --Ron Thigpen