Expert: Amy - 4/5/2004

Question
I've had trouble getting Illustrator files graphic artists send me to look decent on the web (as gifs). And I've noticed that a lot of images that look like they were originally done in Illustrator look really bad on web sites, so I assume it's a problem encountered by many.

Is there a trick to saving an Illustrator file to a gif & keeping the image looking clean? Thanks, Colette

Answer
Hi Colette.

In my opinion, the secret is:

First, make sure your graphic in AI is exactly the size you want it to be on the web.

Then scale your artwork in Illustrator by 400%

Then choose Save for Web

In save for Web dialog box under image size, scale down to 25%.

Turn anti-aliasing on (usually).

Change your matte color to match the web page color upon which this gif will be displayed.  E.g., a transparent gif is going on top of a red background, change the matte color to red.

No dither.
0% lossy.

As far as color table and snap to web, that's up to you - what you choose will very tremendously depending on the subject matter of your image, the desired file size, etc.

Anyway, I think you were mostly talking about the jaggy artifacts, not colors, and this will give you much better results!

Good luck
Amy Pace