[Phpgroupware-developers] Status of GIF matters

[Bradley M. Kuhn]

I have spoken a bit with RMS on the phone about the GIF issue.  I have
also taken a look at Dan's examples at
http://www.phpgroupware.org/using_png.jpg.  I am starting to get a much
clearer picture of what the problem is.

I will first apologize again that there was a miscommunication between Dan
and me back in June that led us here.  I, in fact, thought the GIFs had
been removed long ago from the canonical distribution, and was surprised
when I heard that they weren't.

From the point of view of the FSF and the GNU project, we want to find a
way to resolve this matter.  Of course, our position on "no GIFs for GNU"
is firm, even for the LZW-free versions.  We want to push the industry to
abandon the format entirely, lest people not begin to ignore whether or
not their GIFs are LZW'ed.  The effort to abandon GIF dates back to the
early 1990s, and we want to continue to stand strong on this issue.

Meanwhile, I am well aware that you want the interface to be aesthetically
pleasing, and don't want to screw users of some proprietary software
browsers if you can help it.  To that end, the FSF would like to make its
resources available to find any way possible to create PNGs that look good
in a maximum number of browsers.

I have talked with a graphics hacker to gain a better understanding of the
problem.  (I have never been much into graphics, so I needed some
education first).  As I understand it, the problem stems from the fact
that PNGs have a *more* flexible alpha-channel than GIFs.  PNG's alpha
channel implementation is not supported properly by some proprietary
software browsers, but all modern versions of Free Software browsers do
support it.

Further (as I understand it, correct me if I am mistaken), some of the
phpGroupWare PNGs do different things in some proprietary software
browsers, because the PNGs were generated in different ways. Thus,
http://www.phpgroupware.org/using_png.jpg shows icons with
different-colored backgrounds, based on conversions decisions made by the
person generating the PNGs.

A partial solution is to standardize the PNGs, so that their backgrounds
in broken proprietary software browsers is always the same.  This isn't
aesthetically perfect, since the chosen theme color might differ from the
default background.  However, it would at least make the icons look
uniform.

The FSF will happily help find someone to do the editing work on all the
PNGs to make them uniform.  If the PNGs cannot be made uniform, then we
would certainly be willing to commission an artist to reinvent them from
scratch in a way that maximizes compatibility and aesthetics.


I hope that I have understood the problem well enough, and that my
proposal makes sense.  If it doesn't, please don't hesitate to educate
me.  Meanwhile, if this doesn't solve the problem well enough, I would
love to investigate other creative solutions.

I very much want to do whatever I can to resolve this issue.  As I said in
my last message, phpGroupWare is very important to the GNU project, to
DotGNU, and to the FSF itself (as we plan to begin using it internally
soon).


I would love to hear suggestions on how we can resolve this problem.  I
can make myself available for a phone conversation, too, if any of you
would like to chat about this matter.

I look forward to continuing the discussion.

--
Bradley M. Kuhn, Vice President
Free Software Foundation     |  Phone: +1-617-542-5942
59 Temple Place, Suite 330   |  Fax:   +1-617-542-2652
Boston, MA 02111-1307  USA   |  Web:   http://www.gnu.org



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   -- bkuhn

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