CompuServe Messages

True, a 16 color rendition is a far cry from either one, however the technology in trhe JPEG format is superior. As far as the viewing of either goes, that would be dependent on the software used. The handling of the color mapping/dithering and the handling of the resolution differences between the creating platform, and the viewing platform must also be addressed in rating the various software. I've seen some really bad GIF viewers over the years on different platforms. By the time JPEG got going, there was a lot of previous work to build upon, so it seems there was a head start on creating JPEG viewers. However were a JPEG viewer to be of the same quality that the early GIF viewers were, and the GIF viewer to be of the quality that the current GIF viewers are, it would seem that the GIF was the better format. Either way, if you have a 24 bit rendition of a scene, to start with, you have a more accurate base to create whatever level you want to view at, be it 16/32/64/256/4096 or more colors. Just the same as 400 dpi scans look better at 182 dpi on a dot matrix, than do 200 dpi scans. The 200 dpi still exceeds the capabilities of the printer, but when you have more info to start with, you can put out a better result in the end.