glfs/general/graphlib/libungif/libungif-intro.xml
Larry Lawrence 036393e17a more corner sweeping
git-svn-id: svn://svn.linuxfromscratch.org/BLFS/trunk/BOOK@838 af4574ff-66df-0310-9fd7-8a98e5e911e0
2003-04-09 00:10:43 +00:00

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XML

<sect2>
<title>Introduction to libungif</title>
<screen>Download location (HTTP): <ulink url="&libungif-download-http;"/>
Download location (FTP): <ulink url="&libungif-download-ftp;"/>
Version used: &libungif-version;
Package size: &libungif-size;
Estimated Disk space required: &libungif-buildsize;
Estimated build time: &libungif-time;</screen>
<para>The libungif package contains libraries for reading all gifs and
writing uncompressed ones as well as programs for converting and working
with gif files. The libraries are useful for any graphics program
wishing to deal with gif files while the programs are useful for
conversion purposes as well as cleaning up images.</para>
<para>The reason libungif only writes uncompressed gifs is due to a
legal issue with LZW compression (which Unisys claims a patent on).
Reading gifs is not a problem as the uncompression routines do not seem
to be limited in this way. Note that this has in the past been
disputed. The best way to avoid this whole mess is to simply use
libungif for looking at gif images on the web, while in any pages which
you design, use the open source png format instead (which uses, not
surprisingly, the libpng library) which has no patent issues at
all.</para>
</sect2>