A bit fuzzy about AOL images.
Many people complain about having trouble saving images from the Web in a format that can be opened with most graphics software. If you are surfing the Web using the default settings, then AOL is caching all images on what is called a proxy server. And therein lies the problem. In order to save bandwidth and improve service (and let's not go into that) the images are then compressed and AOL assigns their proprietary extension ( .ART ) to graphics that are cached thru' their proxy servers.
If you are an AOL user, try the Right Click .... Save As technique to see what I mean. You are offered two formats to save your image - .art or .bmp. While the .bmp format can be opened with most graphics editing software, it doesn't offer the small file sizes of the popular web formats ( .gif or .jpg )
All images that come to you via the Internet have already been compressed, and further compression usually reduces image quality. What's worse is that if you use images you have saved with AOL's compressed format and then use those images on your own web site .... every non-AOL visitor sees muddy, blurry images that look horrid.
To fix this problem, you need to change your AOL settings to receive images properly.
In the Members Menu, click on Preferences. In the window that appears click on WWW. You see a window with tabs at the top. Click on the Graphics tab. You see a box that says Use Compressed Graphics. Uncheck this box. You will never notice the difference in speed while downloading graphics from the Web and every image you use on your own web site will look terrific to all non-AOL visitors.
If graphics are still displaying poorly, make sure your Windows display setting is more than 256 colors, then check AOL's display settings. Select Members from the file menu, then Preferences from the drop down menu Click on the Graphics icon, click Select Color Mode select the Detect Automatically and click OK
