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Graphics Compression Information for AOL Users

Note to AOL Users: To see the difference you need to paste the address of this web page into a different browser. Try viewing this page in Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Netscape, for example.

AOL compresses images to speed up web page delivery. When you type in an address or click on a link, the AOL caching system says, "oh, you want this page, let me get it for you." First, the system looks at the page before sending you anything. It sends you the text, but if it finds a picture, it sends the picture through a compression manager. From the compression manager, the picture goes to the AOL cache and then on to you. (It is a very quick process.) The compression makes images smaller in file size, decreases the "load" on the AOL servers, and also makes web pages load faster.

You can choose to disable AOL graphics compression if you want, but some pages may take longer to load.

Here's what the image ought to look like:	Here's what the image might look like on AOL (it is worse when there are more colors and patterns):

To turn off Graphics Compression:

1. On the Settings menu click Preferences.
2. In the Organization section of the Preferences window, click Internet Properties (WWW), then select the Web Graphics tab.
3. Select Never compress graphics.
4. Click OK.

To learn more, just check out the help documentation or do a search on "AOL graphics compression" at www.aol.com.