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You're probably one of the
millions of AOL users that do not realize that AOL software automatically
compresses image data and will distort many images and
photographs, causing these images or photographs to look
blurry or have black lines in them. AOL software is
unusual compared to all other browsers (like Netscape or
Internet Explorer) included with other more standard
internet services. AOL thinks it is doing its users a
favor by compressing images automatically to speed
downloading time, even though the download time is
essentially unchanged by this compression.
The actual result is that the
AOL software adjusts images and photographs only to a
predefined set of 256 unique colors. Any images with
more than the 256 colors in the AOL palette get blurred or
blackened. In short, AOL users do not see the internet
as clearly as the rest of the internet community. Once
you're logged on through AOL, it doesn't matter whether you
use the AOL browser, Internet Explorer, or any other browser
on your computer. They will all receive AOL compressed
images.
To improve the quality of
images on all Web sites (including ours!) when using America
Online you will need to turn off the image compression
function that is set to "on" by default. The
basic procedure to turn off AOL image compression is
outlined below, but may vary slightly between AOL software
versions.
Turning off AOL Image
Compression:
| 1) |
Choose
"My AOL" on the icon bar across the top
of the window. |
| 2) |
Select
"Preferences". |
| 3) |
Click
the "WWW" icon,
pulling up the AOL Internet Properties dialog box. |
| 4) |
Click
the "Web Graphics" tab
on the AOL Internet Properties dialog box. |
| 5) |
Uncheck
"Use Compressed Graphics". |
| 6) |
Leave
the AOL Internet Properties dialog box open. |
You now need to delete the
pages / images that have been previously viewed (browser's
cache):
| 7) |
Select
the "General" tab on
the AOL
Internet Properties dialog box. |
| 8) |
Click
the "Delete Files" button in the
"Temporary Internet files" section. |
| 9) |
Click
"OK" to confirm this action. |
| 10) |
Click
"OK" to close the AOL
Internet Properties dialog box. |
| 11) |
Close
the "Preferences" window. |
For the above changes to
take place, you may have to exit and restart AOL.
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