Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
III
Figure 9.1
JPEG2000 (top) will improve on today's
JPEG (bottom).
Converting Graphics File Formats
There is a huge number of different image formats used when creating or saving images. However,
almost every graphics tool available today will save images in either the GIF or JPEG format, and
up-to-date versions of the better tools should also support PNG.
What if you have a graphics tool without this support? There's a simple workaround available on
Windows. Get the image to appear onscreen, within the graphics tool or on a web page. Then do a
screen capture (press the PrtSc or similarly named key, or Alt+PrtSc to capture only the currently
active window).
Open Microsoft Paint, which is in the Accessories folder of the Windows Start menu. (Windows Vista
or 7 users can just type “Paint” into the search box and select the app when it appears in the list.)
Paste (Ctrl+V) the screen capture into Paint; the entire image will be selected. Press the Esc key to
remove the selection, click the Selection tool, then select only the part of the image that you want
to use on the Web. Copy (Ctrl+C) the selection.
In Paint, select File, New to open a new window. (Don't bother saving the old one.) Paste in the
selection and save it as a JPEG, PNG, or GIF image, as you prefer. (PNG might not be supported on
all systems, including yours, in which case you're stuck with JPEG or GIF.)
Paint doesn't allow you to set important options such as gentler or harsher JPEG compression, but
its limitations are also what make it so easy to use. To have more options available, use a better
tool. You can find free tools, and time-limited trial versions of some quite powerful tools, on online
sites such as CNET's download.com.
