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USING PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 8
Optimizing for the web
Last updated 7/26/2011
PNG-8 with 256 colors and no dither (left), and PNG-8 with 16 colors and dithering (right)
More Help topics
“Preserve background transparency in a GIF or PNG image” on page 270
About the PNG-24 format
The PNG-24 format supports 24-bit color. Like the JPEG format, PNG-24 preserves the subtle variations in brightness
and hue found in photographs. Like the GIF and PNG-8 formats, PNG-24 preserves sharp details like those in line art,
logos, or type.
The PNG-24 format uses the same lossless compression method as the PNG-8 format. For that reason, PNG-24 files
are usually larger than JPEG files of the same image. You may want to avoid PNG-24 format when you are distributing
your image to a wide audience.
In addition to supporting background transparency and background matting, the PNG-24 format supports multilevel
transparency. You can have up to 256 degrees of transparency from opaque to completely transparent, so you can
blend the edges of an image smoothly with any background color. However, not all browsers support multilevel
transparency.
More Help topics
“Preserve background transparency in a GIF or PNG image” on page 270
About animated GIFs
Animated GIFs create the illusion of movement by displaying a sequence of images, or frames, over time. Photoshop
Elements provides a powerful, easy way to create animated GIFs from a multiple-layer image.
To create an animated GIF file, you work with layers. Each layer becomes a frame when Photoshop Elements generates
an optimized animation. The animated GIFs are compiled into an RGB color document.
You can open an existing animated GIF file using the Open command. For each frame in the file, Photoshop Elements
creates a layer. To view a specific frame in the document window, make the layer for that frame visible in the Layers
panel, and hide other layers.
