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Optimize is by far the most important feature of Gifworks. By using it you reduce the color palette in your image and thus the images byte size. Smaller byte size (indicated beneath the image on the view screen.) means quicker load times.
There are two options to optimize: web-safe colors, and reduce colors. Web-safe colors is your best choice for quickly reducing your images colors while retaining the images original look. Use reduce colors to fine tune your image once you have satisfactorily used the web-safe colors option. Web-safe colors takes the standard netscape color palette and applies it one of three ways according to your choice. 1.) Closest match is just that- the color on the palette which matches most closely the color in your image. This will likely remove the greatest amount of colors without altering your images appearance. 2.) Pattern dither alters the colors in an area to their nearest web-safe color match. This removes less colors then closest match but dither can produce grainy or blurred images. 3.) Full dither uses the entire images palette to produce it's alterations. This reduces the least amount of colors but produces the grainier, blurred images of the two dithers. In cases where the image has already been optimized it may actually increase the colors and the byte size of the image so note your images byte size and colors before applying this effect. This is so true for pattern dither and (although very rarely ) for closest match. The second step to optimizing your image is to use reduce colors. Once you have altered your image to a web-safe palette you should choose this option to see if there is any further reduction in colors possible while still retaining the images original quality. Once you click this option you will load pages of your image with it's colors reduced and the original at the bottom. By scrolling back and forth you can find the image you find satisfactory. If all on that page appear satisfactory, continue on to the next page. Hitting your back button will return you to the previous page of samples. Pay close attention to pale colors especially blues and pinks as they are generally the first colors to show sizeable decreases.  Original-253 colors-4973 bytes
Closest match-12 colors-1703 bytes
Pattern dither-17 colors-1898 bytes
Normal dither-33 colors-2268 bytes
Reduce colors-4 colors-862 bytes |
