Creating loss-less GIF images...

[Ichinisan]

I'm trying to save some bitmap (BMP) screenshot files as GIF's using a popular open-source image editor called "IrFanView"

For some reason, the Windows dialog boxes in the screenshot images have a disgusting pattern of speckles over what was originally a solid color.

The speckle pattern in so spaced that I don't think it could possibly be mixing a pattern of pixels to avoid a web-safe color. They certainly aren't compression artifacts because the speckles completely cover an entire solid-colored area.

I thought GIF was a loss-less form of compression? What the hell is wrong?

 

[ThisIsMatt]

GIF is not a loss-less form of compression in that sense. GIF only supports a maximum of 256 colors.

edit: click

GIF is perfect for things like screen shots of windows dialog boxes, screenshots of text, stuff of that nature (limited to few colors, with no smooth color gradiants, etc).

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

I use png for screenshots; it's lossless and compresses pretty well when you have large areas of solid color (most of my screenshots do). High-quality jpeg will look about the same, but I prefer lossless for screenshots.

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: ThisIsMatt
GIF is not a loss-less form of compression in that sense. GIF only supports a maximum of 256 colors.

edit: click

GIF is perfect for things like screen shots of windows dialog boxes, screenshots of text, stuff of that nature (limited to few colors, with no smooth color gradiants, etc).

oh really? GIF does support more than 256 colors, but no tools are smart enough to do it . Anyway, as BBWF said, PNG is better.

 

[eklass]

gif is lossless

unfortunately, you are limited to a maximum pallette of 256 colors. if you use something smart like photoshop, it will pick the optimum colors instead of just using some standard pallete like mspaint

only use it for thing like text, screenshots, etc. anythign where each pixel is pretty important

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: eklass
gif is lossless

unfortunately, you are limited to a maximum pallette of 256 colors. if you use something smart like photoshop, it will pick the optimum colors instead of just using some standard pallete like mspaint

only use it for thing like text, screenshots, etc. anythign where each pixel is pretty important

You seem to have ignored the link in the message immediately above yours.