Improvements made to the Classic 100 Animated Icons
The Classic 100 Animated Icons were originally released during the early days of GIF animation when the browser and the tools (and our skills) were not fully developed.
On April 29, 1997 the Classic 100 were replaced by versions containing the following improvements. None of these improvements changes the look or performance of the animations in any major way:
1. Reduction in file sizes Every animated icon has been reduced in file size. The average file size is now close to 1K, about half what it was before.
We did this using two methods:
- CROPPING (we used GifBuilder's "Frame Optimization")
- DISCARDING UNUSED COLORS (we used GifBuilder's "Remove Unused Colors")
In some cases the reduction was relatively dramatic (for example, runroom.gif dropped from about 6K to about 2K.)
Smaller file sizes mean faster loads and less bandwidth, so, everything else being equal, this is a definite improvement. As animators we know that even a tenth of a second delay can make a difference, so a reduction of 1K may actually be significant.
2. Adjustments of timing From Netscape 2.0 to Netscape 3.0 there were changes in the way looping GIF animation was handled. One consequence was that some of the animated icons appeared to be moving too fast. In some cases interframe delays were lengthened slightly to restore the original sense. In a few other cases extra delays were inserted to slacken tightly looping animations. Tightly looped animations may be a cause of problems in some situations. All adjustments of timing were quite small - typically less than 150 milliseconds.
3. Infinite loops capped Approximately 75% of the loops have been capped to stop motion after 5 minutes (under Netscape 3.0). This may be a safety precaution in situations where the browser is left unattended on the same page. Nonetheless, we would rather place control of such features in the hands of the user. Doing 75% at 5 minutes was a temporary compromise; we should have a better solution in MMMM for 3.0.
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