# PhotoshopElements

# About the GIF format

The GIF format uses 8‑bit color and efficiently compresses solid areas of color while preserving sharp details like those in line art, logos, or type. You also use the GIF format to create an animated image and preserve transparency in an image. GIF is supported by most browsers.

The GIF format uses LZW compression, which is a lossless compression method. However, because GIF files are limited to 256 colors, optimizing an original 24‑bit image as an 8‑bit GIF can subtract colors from an image.

GIF image with selective color (left), and GIF image with web color (right)

You can choose the number of colors in a GIF image and control how colors dither in a browser. GIF supports background transparency or background matting, by which you blend the edges of the image with a web page background color.

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- Preserve background transparency in a GIF or PNG image

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- This page on the Web