As a how-to book, Programming Web Graphics with Perl & GNU Software covers a narrow but powerful niche of Web development--on-the-fly graphics generation. It also focuses on the Perl language and its associated free code modules, making the techniques you learn in this book immediately available for free. / Author Shawn P. Wallace begins with a look at the popular image formats on the Web: GIF, PNG, and JPEG. This chapter offers a quick and fascinating demystification of these critical graphics file types. The next chapter discusses the dance between graphics and Web browsers, with a look at CGI, HTML display, color schemes, and other details.