AOL Users Only - all versions

   In an effort to make AOL seem faster on the Internet they compress the graphics for ALL Web Sites you visit. By doing this, sites will download a little faster. BUT there is a major downside to this. Compressing a graphics file reduces it's quality. (see example below) For many graphics, this is not a problem. But, for the high quality graphics, on this and other sites, and graphics in menus it is a serious problem (poor quality images and menus that don't work).

   You can fix this problem with the following steps.

1. Click on "My AOL", on the bar near the top center of the screen.

2. Click on "Preferences".

3. Click on "WWW".

4. Click "Web Graphics".

5. If the box next to "use compressed graphics" is checked, click on it to uncheck it.

6. Click "General".

7. Click "delete files", to delete any temporary files in your cache. (you should do this periodically to clean up your disk, anyway.)

8. Click "OK"

9. Click "OK".

10. Close the "Preferences" screen. Use the X box in the upper right hand corner of the preferences screen. It is to the far right of the word "Preferences". DO NOT use the X box in the upper right hand corner of the AOL Window, upper right most corner opposite "America Online".

11. IN SOME Cases, you need to sign off AOL and then sign back on again.

12. You will now view graphics as the web designer intended.

13. OPTIONAL: Go to keyword suggestions and suggest that AOL stop making this the default or allow web designers to override this option on their web pages (with a meta tag or ??.

Full Graphic, too large for use.	Optimized, as we create them.	Compressed, as AOL displays it.
74KB	12KB	3KB
This example starts with a very high quality graphic. If the graphic is of less quality before AOL compression, the final result could be a LOT worse. If you still have AOL graphics compression on, it is lowering their quality.     This page should load in about 30 seconds over a 56K modem, EVEN with the large (74k) graphic on the left.