Although the outer area of a graphic seems to disappear with GIF89a, you won??™t be able to overlap your
Web images using this format without using AP elements. Figure 9-1 demonstrates this situation. In this figure,
the same image is presented twice??”one lacks transparency, and one has transparency applied. The
image on the left is saved as a standard GIF without transparency, and you can plainly see the shape of the
full image. The image on the right was saved with the white background color made transparent, but while
the central figure seems to float on the background, its full shape is still there.
FIGURE 9-1
The same image, saved without GIF transparency (left) and with GIF transparency (right).
NOTE NOTE
302
Designing and Crafting Core Pages Part II
The second valuable attribute contributed by GIF89a format is interlacing. One of the most common complaints
about graphics on the Web is lengthy download times. Interlacing won??™t speed up your GIF downloads,
but it gives your Web page visitors something to view other than a blank screen. A graphic saved
with the interlacing feature turned on gives the appearance of developing, like an instant picture, as the file
is downloading. Use of this design option is up to you and your clients. Some folks swear by it; others can??™t
abide it.
Pages:
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626