Visitors to this website that are using AOL's browser may not be seeing it as it's meant to be seen - and that goes for for any website on the internet.

When you first install AOL on your system, it is initially set to use compressed graphics, but they don't tell you this (this is called the 'default' setting).   They do this because the less data you download, the less the load on their servers.   Although this speeds the loading of web pages, the compression can make photographs and graphics look blurred, distorted, and substandard.   They take an image capable of displaying 16.7 million colors and change it to only be seen in 256 colors, and as a result the image looks terrible.

We suggest that you change this setting - it allows you to see any graphic as it's supposed to be seen.   This is especially true if you are going to save a personal copy of any images from this or any other web site on your computer.

Here's how to change it if you are using Win95 or higher:

For AOL 7.0

1. Click SETTINGS.

2. Click PREFERENCES.

3. Click INTERNET PROPERTIES (WWW).

4. Select WEB GRAPHICS

5. Check the box that says "NEVER COMPRESS GRAPHICS"

6.Click on the tab that says 'GENERAL'

7.Where it says 'TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES', click on the 'DELETE FILES' button. This purges, or empties, your cache. This is important so when you visit a page, you are viewing a current page - with compressed graphics off.

8.Click OK.

9. You must close AOL for the changes to take effect. You may restart AOL normally and the images should now be crisp and clear.

Scroll down for an explanation of why this works.

AOL 4.0 and 5.0

1. After you have logged onto AOL, go to the Task Bar at the top of the screen and find the icon button which says "My AOL" and click it.

2. Click on "Preferences"

3. Then click the "WWW" icon that appears on the "Preferences" window.

4.On the "AOL Internet Properties" screen that will appear next, click the "Web Graphics" tab.

5. Uncheck the "Use Compressed Graphics" box by clicking on the check to disable teh compression.   If it's already unchecked then you are already viewing the graphics in the best possible (for AOL) mode.

6.Click on the tab that says 'General'.

7.Where it says 'Temporary Internet Files', click on the 'delete files' button. This purges, or empties, your cache. This is important so when you visit a page, you are viewing a current page - with compressed graphics off.

8. You must close AOL for the changes to take effect. You may restart AOL normally and the images should now be crisp and clear.

Scroll down for an explanation of why this works.

AOL version 3.0

1. After you have logged onto AOL, go to the Task Bar at the top of the screen and find the icon button which says "My AOL" or "Members" and click it.

2. Click on the "Preferences Guide"

3. Click on "The Web" or the "WWW" icon.

4. Click on "Web Graphics"

5. Uncheck the "Use Compressed Graphics" box by clicking on the check to clear it.   If it's already unchecked then you are already viewing the graphics in the best possible (for AOL) mode.

6.Click on the tab that says 'General'.

7.Where it says 'Temporary Internet Files', click on the 'delete files' button. This purges, or empties, your cache. This is important so when you visit a page, you are viewing a current page - with compressed graphics off.

8.Click OK.

9. You must restart the AOL software for the changes to take effect. You may restart AOL normally and the images should now be crisp and clear.

Why will this improve the pictures?

Like 99% of the web sites on the internet, we already use compressed images on our web site (to reduce download time) and compressing an already compressed image actually loses quality (so what you do see just looks bad).

Another reason multiple-compression is a bad idea is that the result is larger than just compressing once.   I'm not going to bore you with the technical explanation, but only the first compression does anything - every subsequent one just makes the final result larger, and larger means it takes longer to download.

If for any reason you decide later to change this option back to the way it was just repeat the steps above and put the check mark back in the box.

Another better way to avoid compressed graphics is to NOT use AOL's internal browser at all!   Simply start AOL, use it to read your email, then use an EXTERNAL browser such as Internet Explorer or Netscape to surf the web sites.

Enjoy your web browsing, with graphics in their full, uncompressed glory!