Due to limited number of colors, GIF is primarily useful in images with a distinct separation of colors. A cartoon, for example, is ideal for GIF format.

When you save an image in GIF format, you have option to specify how many colors will be saved. By doing this you can decrease size of an image even further. All of tools which are available to optimize GIF images work by reducing number of colors to bare minimum. This can produce astounding results in size of finished file.

Unlike JPEG, GIF uses a non-lossy compression algorithm. This means that images do not loose bits when they are decompressed. In order to accomplish this, GIF uses a proprietary encoding/decoding scheme called LZW (Lempel Zev Welch). LZW is an excellent compression algorithm which typically results in very small files (in comparison to fully expanded BMP files).

The guidelines below will help you to create web sites that are user-friendly and will be well received.

1. Content, content, content! The single most important element in any successful web site is good content. You must have content that is:

* interesting;

* informative; and

* regularly updated.

Without this, it will be difficult to convince people to visit your site again and again. Lots of flashy colours and animated images may look fun first time, but it's not enough to keep people coming back to your site. Only good content can do that.

2. Don't overuse character styles such as bold face and italics as this can make your site seem amateurish. Also, underlining should be avoided at all costs as visitors will mistake underlined text for a clickable link.

Similarly, don't wildly vary size of your type unless you have good reason.

3. Don't abuse your colours. Too many colours, or overly garish colours, are one of easiest ways to spot amateur web sites. Also make sure that you choose a readable colour scheme. White text on a black background may look cool, but it's tough to read, particularly with small text.