formats
 

I dont know if this belongs in bugs or where, if i'm posting in the wrong place i apologize, i'm still finding my way round.
Has Stefan actually said it is illegal to use .gif format?
Because i had a lengthy conversation with someone on aim
about this.
I told them i believed it was because of possible copyright laws
which this person believes is ridiculous.
Here's the conversation.
I know there was a thread about it somewhere but i have no clue where to start looking.



unknown: no....its like the whole head is transparent
unknown: man id send gif but i dont wanna get you in trouble...i guess i wont be able to make anymore gfx cause all i can sucessfully do is gif..
unknown: i cant make png or mng...
unknown: they always screw up...
unknown: no one MAKES those anymore and that *** no gifs rule sux
unknown: i think if enoughof us complain maybe stefan will stop the gif rule
unknown: im starting to wander if its some staff runnin around to avoid uploading
FunnyGirlTifa: maybe, tho i heard it was some copyright thing, but if .gif is copyright thats strange
unknown: it cant be =/ cause people make CRAP loads of gifs you go EVERYWERE to find gifs you cant copy right .gif =/ did stefan himself say this rule
FunnyGirlTifa: not exactly but i remember him saying we shouldnt upload them, i canpost about it if you like
unknown: please because i cant make or do anything...and one reason i come to graal is because i could put my skill to use...
FunnyGirlTifa: ok i will
unknown: he said you shouldnt but he didnt say you couldnt
FunnyGirlTifa: its been awhile since i saw the post
unknown: ok i just checked it .gif is NOT copyrighted
unknown: its a shareware
unknown: if it wre copyrighted you wouldnt find it all over the net
FunnyGirlTifa: ok thats true, sadly no admins or managers are on to ask
FunnyGirlTifa: so i'll post on the forums
unknown: ok
-----------------------

There is a patent on the encoding or something on the .gif format, wich is owned by CompuServ I think. Anyway, they've started making all the software companies that produce image making software, like Photoshop, pay fees to include the ability to make .gif's. It's possible to big websites, and programs, to be forced to pay money for the use of .gifs, thus it's to their advantage not to use gifs. Plus PNGs support more than 256 colors, and have better compresion.

unknown: but that doesnt help I CANT MAKE pngs
unknown: what about us not being ABLE to maek it and i cant get that stupid photoshop or what ever
unknown: a lot of us are not able to get those programs to make the pngs and the one i do have wont save it right
unknown: add that
unknown: please
FunnyGirlTifa: ok

gifs are legal untill the person with the copywrite says you cant use them so.....

unknown:(slightly edited by me)what can i do to get something that makes png or make a new job for people who CAN convert to help people who cant get those programs!

paint

I HAVE paint and it WONT save the pngs right
unknown: if i wasnt having a problem then i wouldnt be fussing

um doesn't gif2mng or whatever program in the graal folder do this?

Ding ding ding. 'Bout time someone said this.

yes i know that and so does *unknown*
That isnt the point
So many wonderful heads/shields etc when converted to .png just dont work anymore.
And *unknown* is upset because they make wonderful gfx that wont work now.

If they know how to make wonderful graphics they should know how to make them work, including you.

Gifs wont be fee-based anytime soon if ever there was talk along time ago about it when CompuServ was a more independant company but CompuServ is now owned by AOL Time Warner and making a few more dollars isnt urgent to AOL at this time. Not to mention it would required lots of legal litigation as they would be backing out of hundreds of contracts and agreements with software vendors and end-users so its very unlikely to ever see this occur kinda like the same thing with Mpegs becoming pay to use its just not gonna happen.

Are you an idiot? you posted the exact thing in another thread.

IrfanView?

I use IrfanView because I needed something to view mng's, but does it convert?

I use gif2mng to convert all gifs to png's, and it works fine for me...but mng is another story, they never work for me

Microsoft photo editor works well too I think...I just open the image, click save as, and save it as a png...you can probably do the same with IrvanView, and its free

what is he talking about? Nova didn't post that in this thread
=X

also, i just use paintshop

=0

Only the XP version of Paint can read/write PNGs, so those with slightly older Windows versions can't use MS Paint for PNGs. You can always try the Windows version of The Gimp, which is free, btw.

If someone said it, I dont know, I cant be bothered to read it all. But heres the 411 on gifs:

1.) Gifs WILL in the future become illegal on graal
2.) All NEW images should now be in either MNG/PNG
3.) EVERY server and PW should be prepared for when GIFs are taken out.

Best Advice:

Just change to PNG/MNG now to save hassle later.

Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 also supports saving as PNG format in paint. Maybe there's a pack for windows 98 too?