HTML Level 1 and 2 Manual

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Making GIFs

Small palette images for a slow modem web

Why GIF

GIF was the ordinary choice for logos, icons, rules, badges and simple diagrams. It supported indexed colour, small file sizes, interlacing and one transparent colour in GIF89a.
Use JPEG for photographs if you permit later 1990s practice, but for this manual the classic tiny GIF is the natural house style.

Rules of thumb

Start with the smallest useful pixel dimensions.
Reduce the palette before saving. Sixteen or thirty-two colours are often enough for a button.
Use dithering when converting a richer graphic to a small palette, but check that text remains readable.
Add ALT text on every IMG so the page still works with images off.

Badge sizes

88 x 31 became a familiar badge size. Small bullets might be 8 x 8 or 12 x 12. A divider rule can be a tiny repeated image, though HR is cleaner in HTML 2.0.
This project includes images/tiny_button.gif as a deliberately small sample badge.

Example image use

<IMG SRC="images/tiny_button.gif" ALT="HTML 2 Manual">

Do not make navigation text only a GIF. Use a text link nearby.

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HTML Level 1 and 2 Manual.