Your thought's, flash vs gif?

[roey]

Hi,

Which is better?

 

[Engineer]

I like gif banners because I can host them myself and they show up on all devices -- unlike Flash, which doesn't work on (cr)apple devices.

 

[Guard Dog]

I always choose gif as well. I can host myself easier and put my own tracking to them easier.

 

[slotplayer]

same here and hosting them helps the page load faster.

 

[KasinoKing]

Me too.
With the editor I use, I can't even see Flash banners - so GIFs all the way for me (unless there's no choice).

KK

 

[Leo]

Well I would say PNG

No reason to use a GIF when the same exact image will ALWAYS be smaller when you convert it to a PNG.

No loss of detail (unlike lossy jpgs), just a better format.

My final step is to always run the files through 'PNG Gauntlet' software which makes the filesize even smaller, while again losing absolutely no quality. Amazing, and free from http://pnggauntlet.com/

There's also JPEG Reducer software which also can marginally reduce size of .jpg files with NO loss of quality, free from http://home.arcor.de/shld/thejpegreducer/

I only use Flash when absolutely necessary, eg. Live Odds banners.

 

[CaseyM]

Another vote for gif for pretty much the same reason others have stated, compatible with everything & can host myself

 

[tryme1]

Yeah, what everyone else said. Flash is pretty pointless for banners, to be honest.

 

[Guard Dog]

Not sure about the PNG idea above. It's great for static banners, but provides no animation as far as I am aware. I prefer some animation to my banners to grab the user's attention.

 

[Leo]

Not sure about the PNG idea above. It's great for static banners, but provides no animation as far as I am aware. I prefer some animation to my banners to grab the user's attention.

Good point, I didn't think about that because I don't use animation, I don't want to grab anyone's attention

I mean when I'm on a website I hate things moving around in my peripheral vision, I'm more likely to close the page just to get rid of it!

So I tend to mostly use text links with 'calls to action', since I would be more likely to click those myself, rather than banner ads. I just use images to support the text. But I guess there's a good chance that animated banners could convert more.

Also it is possible to have an animated PNG but it's not well supported by most browsers so unfortunately pretty useless.

 

[slotplayer]

I've actually been moving in the opposite direction and stripping my site of banners whenever I update a page.

Mobile-friendly is the way to go.

 

[bonustreak]

gif and I wish more programs would give this option to affiliates more often!

 

[bonusgangster]

Gifs are normally going to be much smaller than a PNG as GIfs only support 256 colors and are lossy (they discard info about the file as optimization changes) while PNGs support 16.7 million colors and are lossless (meaning they do not discard some of the data about file). The other users statement about saving a GIF as a PNG is not accurate as they will normally be about 3 times the file size, although PNGs sometimes will be smaller, but that is rare and depends on the original file type. The only real reason to go with a PNG over another file format most of the time is if you need a lot of colors, there are heavy transparencies and you don't mind having a larger file size.

 

[Leo]

Gifs are normally going to be much smaller than a PNG as GIfs only support 256 colors and are lossy

If you convert a GIF to a PNG it doesn't increase the number of colors, the color palette stays the same so it will still have 256 colors (or less). The filesize of a PNG is always smaller. Also GIFs aren't lossy, they retain all information, unlike a JPG.

saving a GIF as a PNG is not accurate as they will normally be about 3 times the file size

No, you must be thinking of saving a JPG as a PNG, then the PNG may be 3 times the size of the JPG, due to the number of colors and due to not being optimized for photo-style compression like a JPG. But for converting GIFs that is not the case at all.

Send me as many GIFs as you like, I'll send them back as PNGs and every one will be smaller (or in a few rare cases no size difference), with absolutely no loss of quality.

 

[slotplayer]

I've made a bunch of animated gifs for my site years ago using gif construction set. I think its still around.

 

[roey]

What have I started lol.

So gif's win over flash, unless the site only runs off flash.

 

[bonusgangster]

Jam your correct if you take an existing GIF file and save with PNG settings as a flattened file and not the editable PNG version it is smaller than the GIF version of the same file. I was coming more from a design standpoint and assuming figuring out the best file format to use on an image, which of course would depend on what that particular image was going to be used for and what it included. But taking an animated GIF banner from an affiliate programs and saving as a flattened PNG wont carry over the animation, but will be smaller file size.

 

[sasa]

I preffer gifs (images) instead of using flash for all reasons mentioned above plus with images you can create css sprites which can help you to reduce the number of HTTP requests and speed up your site.

 

[LandofOz]

I prefer .gif images. They load faster and are easier to track and manage.

 

[baerrus]

Adobe Flash is on its way out.