Gif or Jpg? Helpful Hints On Why To Choose

Crocuta's ~.GIF and ~.JPG Lectures

This, as any fool can plainly see, is a GIF with a transparent background. So how the heck do you make it have a transparent background? Here's how in Paint Shop Pro 4.0:
1) Be sure the part you want to be transparent is all one color, and that this color is the background color (same as the 'back' little rectangle of the two on the right side of your PSP workspace.) Also, be sure the image is the size you want it on the web page. Even though the background is invisible, it still takes up space on a web page-- you could end up with a lot of vacant space around it.
2) Click File/Save As/, choose Type 'GIF', and choose the Options button on the lower right corner. One of your options is to 'Set the Transparency Value To the Background Color'. Pick this, then Save up in the main Save window.
3) Now your GIF has a transparent background, and when you put it in your web page the background pattern or color will show through.

(Unfortunately, later versions of Paint Shop Pro, such as 6.0, do not have this capability!)

~.GIF or ~.JPG?

~.jpg files are smaller for the same size picture, except down in the really small (kB) sizes. However, they cannot be reduced to 256 colors. 256 colors becomes an advantage in Paint Shop Pro when you are editing an image... At 256 colors, PSP's palette gives you a choice of every actual color in the image, so you can more easily change/add to it, and your changes blend in well. If you use the '16 million colors' setting in PSP (which ~.jpg requires), then PSP gives you a palette only of a few primary colors, and it is harder to inconspicuously modify a photo-quality image. However, in PSP you can only 'smudge' or soften edges in 16 million colors. So the best tactics in PSP if you are altering a photo to put on your web page:

1) Start with it in 256 bit color, and expand/add/edit it as necessary. (Colors/Increase~ or Decrease Color Depth/to 8-bit color (256) .) Your painted-in parts will look a little blotchy and fake. 'Paper texture' settings such as 'Lava' or 'marble' help painted-in stuff blend a little better. It is a really good idea to periodically save, such as when you finish a step and like how it looks. This way if you botch up the next step you can go back to the last good stage of work.

2) Colors/Increase Color Depth to 16 million, then 'Smudge' your additions, using the "paper textures" and "opacity" which work best, until you are satisfied. ("Opacity"-- the lower the number, the weaker the smudging effect of any one smudge stroke.) When done, reduce color depth to 256 (to make the file smaller) and save it as a ~.jpg.

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