| ART | |
|---|---|
| Filename extension | .art |
| Developed by | America Online (AOL) |
| Type of format | Image file formats |
ART is aproprietaryimage file format used mostly by theAmerica Online (AOL) service andclientsoftware.
The ART format (file extension ".art") holds a single stillimage that has been highlycompressed. The format was designed to facilitate the quick downloading of images, among other things.[1] Originally, the compression was developed by theJohnson-Grace Company,[2] which was then acquired by AOL.[3] When an image is converted to the ART format, the image is analyzed and the software decides what compression technique would be best.[2] The ART format has similarities to theprogressiveJPEG format, and certain attributes of the ART format can lead to image quality being sacrificed for the sake of image compression (for instance, the image's color palette can be limited).[1]
The AOL service used the ART image format for most of the image presentation of the online service. In addition, the AOL client's web browser also automatically served such images in the ART format to achieve faster downloads on the slower dialup connections that were prevalent in those days.[4] This conversion was done in the AOLproxy servers and could be optionally disabled by the user. This image conversion process effectively reduced the download time for image files. This technology was oncebranded as Turboweb and is now known as AOL TopSpeed.[4]
The Graphic Workshop Professional software from Alchemy Mindworks Corp. supports ART files.[5] (With later versions of the Graphic Workshop Professional software, an ARTplugin from Alchemy Mindworks is required for this support.)[5] For theWindows 2000 platform,Microsoft released the AOL Image Support Update which added support for ART images.[6] As of June 2006 theInternet Explorer browser no longer supported ART files when Microsoft released a security update.[7] Among other things, this update removed support for ART files from the Internet Explorer browser in order to help prevent issues where invalid ART data could cause the Internet Explorer software to unexpectedly quit.[7] An ART file that is opened with the AOL picture viewer can be saved as another file type.Software Mfg. Delcam (a subsidiary of Autodesk) has a product called Artcam which uses the ART file extension to create CAD/CAM files.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)| Raster | |
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| Raw | |
| Vector | |
| Compound | |
| Metadata |
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