Fast Load Time For GIFs VS Data Loss

The largest files involved in any web pages are the images that load when displaying the page.

Here I have taken a simple graphic logo, that would normally be presented as a GIF. Indexed colors. with no dithering. The original was scanned from a business card as a high quality photograph, at 72 dots per inch. The same resolution that is displayed on monitors.


8 bit, 256 colors, compression 1:3, 9.2K. Next we see 6 bit, 64 colors, compression 1:6, 5.2K.

8 BIT GIF 6 BIT GIF

4 bit, 16 colors, compression 1:5, 2.8K. And Finally 3 bit, 8 colors, compression 1:7, 2.3K.
4 BIT GIF 3 BIT GIF

Viewed on my 256 color Apple, I can see a noticeable change from the 6 to the 4 bit version. The yellow seems brighter and richer on the 4 & 3 bit GIF's, distractingly so. On the other hand the dark gray looks softer and smoother, on the 3 & 4 bit GIFs because there is much less variation of tone.

Of these 4, I would choose to use the 3 bit version. If I could soften the yellow tone down, so that it wasn't so dominant.

Now let's look at the JPEGs of the same logo.

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