FP97: 24-bit BMP and TIF Images Saved in GIF Format

When you insert a Windows Bitmap (BMP) or Tagged Image File Format (TIFF or TIF) image that contains more than 256 colors, FrontPage Editor will save the image in the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) rather than the original graphics format.

Because of Internet Web browser standards, GIF and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPG) formats are the predominant image formats found on web pages. FrontPage conforms to these Internet standards and does not save the image in a non-standard image format such as BMP, TIFF, TIF, Targa (TGA), and so forth.

To use an image format other than GIF in your FrontPage Web content, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Convert the Image to JPG Format Using an Image Editing Program

You can use an image editing program, such as Microsoft Image Composer, to convert the image to JPG format.

NOTE: Image Composer ships with FrontPage 97.

Method 2: Retain the Original Image Format by Changing the File Name Extension

You may override the default functionality of FrontPage and save the file in its original image format. To do this, typing the file name extension that corresponds to the original image format when you save the file. For example, if your original file is a Windows Bitmap (BMP) and you want to retain this format, save the file using the BMP extension.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was corrected in Microsoft FrontPage 98 for Windows.