Get Rid of Those Blurry Images; Color Settings

AOL users: you may find that this site as well as other sites that you visit have blurry or distorted images. This is because AOL, in its infinite wisdom, feels that by further compressing images, less data will be transmitted, saving them bandwidth and therefore cost. Of course, this means you're stuck with looking at distorted images. But don't worry, it's easy to change the default settings:

For users of newer (Versions 7 & 8) AOL browsers:

  1. Click "Settings" at the top of the AOL window
  2. Select "Preferences"
  3. Click on "Internet Properties (WWW)"
  4. Click on the "Web Graphics" tab
  5. Select "Never compress graphics"
  6. Click the "OK" button
  7. Then you need to clear your cache; otherwise the old blurry images will still show up. Go to "Internet Properties (WWW)".
  8. Where you see "Temporary Internet Files," click on the "delete files" button.
  9. Click OK.
  10. You may need to close AOL and restart it in order for the changes to take effect.

For users of older AOL browsers (the directions may vary depending on the version):

  1. On the AOL toolbar click "My AOL."
  2. Click on "Preferences."
  3. Then click the "WWW" icon that appears in the "Preferences" window.
  4. On the "AOL Internet Properties" screen that will appear next, click the "Web Graphics" tab.
  5. UNCHECK the box labeled "Use compressed graphics."
  6. Click on the tab that says "General."
  7. Where it says "Temporary Internet Files" or "Cache," click on the "delete files" or "empty folder" button. This empties, your cache.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Press the back button on your browser to return to the website and then refresh or reload the browser to load a fresh version of the website with compressed images turned off.

Should I set my computer at True Color, High Color or 256 colors?
A True Color setting will display over 16 million colors in online graphics, whereas a High Color setting will display over 65,000 colors. 8-bit color displays only 256 colors. If you have a really old computer, maybe you should stick with your current color display setting. Those old computers don't have a lot of video memory or very sophisticated video cards, so they can only support low color settings. However, if you bought a computer within the past few years, your video card should be able to handle True Color. Here is how you change your color settings (for Windows):

  1. Click Start (the button on the lower left) > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Settings
  2. Select "True Color" in the drop-down list.
  3. Click OK, and you're all set!

After you set your computer to True Color, sit back and enjoy the scrumptious eye-candy we have on our site!