Boutell.com's GD had, then dropped, RLE GIF support in version 1.3.
Here are some links to what's out there now:
Free and legal RLE compresed GIF code
http://static.userland.com/userLandDiscussArchive/msg010172.html
GIF LZW Materials
http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley/3453/gif_info/source_en.html
Ploticus and pseudo-gifs
http://ploticus.sourceforge.net/doc/web.html
AspImage, LZW and the Unisys Patent on GIF/LZW
http://www.serverobjects.com/lzw.html
I'm amazed there's not a library on sourceforge devoted to making clean,
optimal RLE gifs, along with an advisory for the graphic designer on how
to make images that pack.
Couple that with a lossy GIF preprocessor, and you'd make legal
server-built GIFs quite practical. What do y'all use in Japan?
Two hands over the eyes and anti-Unisys incense?
-chris
> > [Paul Hardy:]
> > I'm sure this is an old topic but I can't find it:
> >
> > What tools, if any, are people using to create non-LZW GIFs? Can all phones
> > cope with REL-encoded GIFs, or must they be uncompressed, if not LZW'd?
>
> [Ben Hutchings:]
> The GIF format requires that pixel data be stored as an LZW stream; there
> is no option to specify any other encoding. However, it is possible for a
> encoder that doesn't use the LZW algorithm to produce inefficient but
> valid LZW streams. I'd not heard of RLE GIFs, but I suppose you could
> make an RLE encoder generate an LZW stream. A web search turned up
> references to several tools that do that.
>
> Any phone should be able to cope with a GIF that wasn't produced by a true
> LZW encoder, because it's in exactly the same format.
--
________________________________________________________________
visible + sensible + trustable = usable. www.TRUTHinDesign.com
Received on Fri May 24 20:44:00 2002