This provides an overview of how GIF and JPEG images look at different levels of quality. If you have a monitor that is set at thousands (high color) or millions (true color), quit your browser and reset your monitor to 256 colors. You will get an idea of how most of the people on the web see images.
If your monitor is set on thousands or millions, the white surrounding the JPEG images will show dots or artifacts (web measles) that make the image appear bordered with a very light gray. This is part of the JPEG conversion process and is one of the reasons you should avoid JPEG if you have large areas of a flat, single color. On 256 colors you will see far more measles scattered around the JPEG images and an increased level of banding in the GIF files.
GIF |
JPEG |
|
256 colors 11.615 KB |
100% quality 10.606 KB |
|
128 colors 8.208 KB |
85% quality 3.351 KB file size |
|
64 colors 5.182 KB |
75% quality 2.889 KB file size |
|
32 colors 3.718 KB |
65% quality 2.695 KB file size |
|
16 colors 2.484 KB |
55% quality 2.481 KB file size |
|
8 colors 1.502 KB |
45% quality 2.381 KB file size |
|
4 colors .975 KB |
35% quality 2.291 KB file size |
|
2 colors .464 KB |
25% quality 2.163 KB file size |
