Which Software Should You Use?

Considering the narrow band connections and the small screens that mobile devices offer, we recommend that you do not overuse images in WML decks. Now that you have been warned, nothing prevents you from embedding one or two images.

As you know, the WAP environment is graphically limited in comparison to the Web. So forget the GIFs and the JPEGs. Only one format is supported by WAP devices and that is WBMP. Images in this format are characterised by a small size and a unique black and white palette.

Very few graphics editors are currently able to work with this format. If you want to use PhotoShop or Paint Shop Pro to edit this type of image, you will need to use the Unwired plug-in, which can be downloaded at http://www.rcp.co.uk/distributed/Downloads.

There are also a number of software programs, specially tailored to the WBMP format, which are very small and easy to use. We have chosen one of these tools - Wap Pictus (http://www.checkit.cz/engl/download/download.html) - for implementing this workshop. The big advantage of this program is that it is entirely free of charge and can also be used for the conversion of four formats (BMP, GIF, JPG et PNG) into WBMP.

There are also a few online converters. Visit http://www.teraflops.com/wbmp/ and specify the URL of your image in the appropriate form. Note that this image must be in GIF or JPEG format.