Spacer GIFs

useful or a hidden evil?

[beakertrail]

What is the opinion / standards on the use of spacer GIFs for page alignment.

I don't use them myself as I construct pages in CSS but I know many others who do.

I've noticed when browsing a web site using spacer gifs that if images are turned off on the browser (accessibility feature) then the page goes all over the place - not so accessible!

It does however allow good and more accurate placement of elements on the page when using tables, so are they good or are they bad?

Beaker

[benihana]

i havent used them for years, and i cannot really think of situation that cannot be dealt with with a little margin, or padding.

[DoppyNL]

You answered your own question!

>> I don't use them myself as I construct pages in CSS

They are not needed because you can use CSS.
Since spacers require the use of images, they need additional requests to the server; resulting in a higher server-load and netwerk-load.
using css you only need a style sheet.

So I can't think of a usefull situation for spacer images. It can all be done with CSS.

A hidden evil I would say.