Note: this refers to the IBM PC & clones only

The point is that they do a lousy job on dithering. So does Microsoft explorer. They probably purchased the identical code from some clot.

Have been watching this go back and forth & get further from the original question as usual. I suspect that if the original poster looks in her/his/ its/other SYSTEM.INI file, the line "display.drv=vga.drv" will be found in the [boot] section. This is the default 16 color driver installed by Windows to be compatible with every 256k 640x480 VGA card. This makes a decent GIF or JPEG - even "64 gray scale" such as the QuickCam produces - look like olifactory solid waste products. To do better, you need three things: 1) A video card with higher resolution (usually at least 1 Mb of video memory is necessary). 2) A video monitor capable of supporting the card's output. 3) An increased resolution (at least 256 colors as the first responder mentioned) video driver to replace vga.drv (YMMV). If any of these are missing, see the second paragraph above. Warmly, Padgett ps the CDA does nothing to block really creative insults 8*).