Internet picture formats

For my NASA game I'm having to download a lot of small pictures - misson patches, logos, etc.

I need to edit most of the pictures to get a standard size and everything, and I'm also needing to put them on the internet (to be part of a CGI-program).

- The smallest format for pictures of this kind, I think is *.ART. I don't have an editor for *.ART files, so do I need a special plug-in to display them on the site? If I do need any kind of a special program, can someone point me in the right diretion of a free one?

- Between BMP, JPEG, and GIF, which is best for displaying on the internet (in case the ART thing doesn't work)

Thanks in advance if you can help!

GIF when using pictures with low color count (<=256), like smilies, buttons and stuff.

JPEG when using pictures with lots of colors, like photographs.

Don't use .ART, then noone can see your pics on the internet.

JPG, GIF, and PNG and the most recognized standards - If its a drawn picture use GIF if it's a photo use JPG.

Portable Network Graphics (.png) are barely supported by anything yet. unless you have photoshop or PaintShop or something of that sort that can read png. png can compress better than a jpg and look better than a jpg. it was meant to over take gif and jpg. but it wont happen.

dont use png idf you expect alot of people to view it.

gif and or jpgs are the best

>png can compress better than a jpg and look better than a jpg. it was meant to over take gif and jpg. but it wont happen.

I don't think PNG was meant to overtake JPG, GIF maybe, but not JPG. PNG employs lossless compression, while JPG is lossey. JPG files are far smaller than the equivelent PNG file, but at the expense of quality.

If you are displaying photographs, use JPG because the files are smaller. But if it's line art, and pixel perfection needs to be preserved, PNG is an excellent choice.

Alright - i've done some research and thinking since I last posted (I deleted the last post - it's pointless now), and I've been able to condense the entire solution into few short questions:

1) The logos and stuff are maily for a menu and an intro, so as long as I can find out from somebody the real deal on *.ART files. I've never had a problem viewing them, and I don't have any special attachments. I've seen a lot of sites that use them, and they don't report the need for anything special. All I'd need to use them in would be the browser window. Anyone?

2) The rest of the pictures woul just be views of cockpits and instrument panels and stuff like that. But for things like reentry, it'll be one of those views, but I'll need more than an array of polygons made to look like something: I'm going to need a small animation to show the atmoshpere outside the capsule window slowly go bright red - and I'm pretty sure I can do that with GIFs. Does anyone know how to load GIFs into an applet with Java? I've looked at all the documentation, and all I can find is the ability to add simple polygons - which is less than I need. I can do everything with CGI, but Java would be a little better if I can do that. Anyone?

You really have no other choice than to use JPG, GIF, or PNG for your pics - READ this about *.ART files.

••> downloading ".art" files
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America Online (AOL) likes to compress the images you download with its browser and slap an .art extension onto their filenames. Unfortunately, your non-AOL applications probably won't recognize this extension, and subsequently won't be able to open these images.
If you've already obtained an image with this extension, you can get it again for free -- find it on your past downloads page. But before you re-download, you'll have to fix the problem. There are a couple of ways to do this:

Solution #1: Use a different browser

2) For your RED flare the GIF has a format of GIF89a which is animation - just like my AVATAR

Alright - thanks. Yeah - that's where I got the idea for the animations. Well that's all my question answered - thanks everyone!

yw

btw, i didn;t mean png was meant to take over jpg. gif yeah, but not jpg. jpg is just too good compared to gif. but until more people can view png, stick with jpg and gif.

and gif is the only one of the three that can be animated!

well PNG supposed to be a replacement for GIF iirc, since now you have to pay licensing fees for GIF. i think flash should be used in place of GIF now anyway.

i thought PNG could be viewed by most browsers?