What is the most generally accepted format for bitmapped images
in (a) MIME (b) WWW?
Is it the same? If not, should it be the same?
The reason for my question is that we are planning to make
a mail system which sends messages in HTML format, and we
have to decide on a format for bitmapped images. GIF, JPEG
and TIFF seem to be the most common formats. They all
seem to have problems. GIF has the Unisys patent problem,
TIFF in my experience is not enough well defined (different
TIFF implementations I have tried cannot communicate with
each other in the TIFF format) and JPEG loses information,
something you may not always wish to do.
I have an impression that HTML mostly uses GIF and
that MIME implementations seem not to have made up their
minds yet on which image format to use.
(Of course, such an agreement is important. MIME is
worthless for bitmapped images if the senders mail systems sends
in IMAGE/GIF format, and the recipients system can only
receive IMAGE/TIFF, or the reverse!)
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Jacob Palme <jpalme(_at_)dsv(_dot_)su(_dot_)se> (Stockholm University and KTH)
for more info see URL: http://www.dsv.su.se/~jpalme