Frequently Asked Questions
Last Updated 29 May 2000.

What is the mission of Bayonet.Net?
How do I copy images from the web site to my computer?
Are the images on the site or CD copyrighted?
What file formats are used on the site or CD?
What software do I need to view the files?
Where can I buy a copy of the CD?
How do I donate images to the collection?
How do I link to Bayonet.Net?
Can I use the images on my web site or in my briefing?
Why do I get errors using CGM files in Power Point?
Why don’t you have images from other services?
Do you have a reseller program for businesses that want to sell your CD?
Can you identify a particular crest or patch for me?
I am looking for a particular image or a crest or patch. Can you help me find it?
Do you sell actual unit crests or patches?

Bayonet.Net provides clipart, digital images, video, and sound files relevant to the United States Army for sale. Samples of the clipart and digital images are available free of charge on the world wide web. These materials are intended for general use to include web-design and military briefings, publications, and training material.

To save an image to your computer, right click on the thumbnail and select "Save Target As..." (Exact command may vary depending on which browser you are using.)

Ensure that you save the target of the thumbnail and not the actual thumbnail itself. The thumbnails are small, low-quality representations of the actual file. Thumbnails are designed to load quickly and allow you to browse all images. However, they are low quality and will not display well in presentations or printed material.

By single clicking on a thumbnail, you will generally be able to see the actual image. However this only works with GIF and JPG files. This technique will not work with WMF, CGM, and other types of files. The only way to view these actual images is to save them to your computer using the right click technique above. After you have saved them to your computer, you can use other software such as Microsoft Power Point to view the files. See the section on What software do I need to view the files? for more information.

Bayonet.Net copyrights this web site design and layout and the compilation of files. Individual image files are collected from the public domain. This includes various DoD sources and donations from site visitors. Users of this site are free to use images from the site or CD. It is not necessary to credit Bayonet.Net as the source. However, should you wish to credit Bayonet.Net, you may as long as the nature of your site or material is not derogatory of Bayonet.Net or the Federal Government.

If you discover copyrighted material on our site, please contact us and we will remove it. Contact webmaster@bayonet.net for assistance.

This site and the CD contain graphic files in the formats listed below. Formats are divided into bitmapped, vector, and movie and sound formats. Bitmapped formats represent an image as a series of pixels, whereas vector formats represent an image as a series of mathematical formulas. Photographs are generally best used in bitmapped formats, whereas graphics such as a line drawing are generally best used in vector formats. The biggest advantage to vector formats is that they are "scaleable." This means that if you need to print the image either very large or very small, it will automatically resize. If you were to try and do this with a bitmapped format, you would see jagged edges and would loose the detail of the image. For further information of formats go to http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/~mxr/gfx/2d-hi.html.

Bitmapped Formats:

BMP: Windows Bitmaps. This is the standard bitmap format supported by Microsoft Windows. The standard VGA driver does not properly decompress 8-bit compressed BMP files; for best color viewing, you should load a 256-color or higher Windows video driver, which should eliminate this problem.

GIF: CompuServe GIF. CompuServe, an on-line service, developed the GIF format to provide good file compression and relatively fast decompression speed. GIF is a very popular format for online services, but is limited to a maximum of 256 colors.

JPG, JPE, JPEG: JPEG (JFIF) Files. The JPEG format was developed to provide a high degree of compression for images. It is a "lossy" compression method, meaning that some color information from the original is lost. JPEG is generally appropriate for photographed or scanned images, and works best for 24-bit sources. JPEG is generally inappropriate for any type of line-drawn art.

PCX: ZSoft Picture. PCX files are a fairly early PC graphic format, which has been extended over the years to support more and varied color depths.

TIF: Tagged Image File Format. Several companies developed the Tagged Image Format, including Aldus and Silicon Graphics, to be the be-all and end-all of image file formats. Because of its scope and extensibility, it is an extremely complex format that no single product can support completely.

Vector Formats:

CGM: Computer Graphics Metafile. CGM files are vector graphic files useful as clipart. They scale well, and have the distinction of being the only ANSI standard graphic format.

WMF: Windows Metafile. The Windows Metafile format is the standard Windows format for storing vector and metafile graphics. It is quite powerful, as anything that can be drawn on the screen or printed on a printer can be stored in a metafile. It does, however, lack several rather rudimentary graphics primitives, such as Bezier curves and non-orthogonal ellipses.

Video and Sound Formats (CD Only):

AVI: Video for Windows. AVI is the standard Windows video format. On Windows 3.1, Video for Windows version 1.1d or later must be installed to play AVI files.

MOV: QuickTime for Windows. MOV is the standard Macintosh video format. Apple QuickTime for Windows must be loaded on the system to play MOV files. MOV files must be flattened to play on Windows. This means that the Macintosh resource and data file forks must be combined into a single file.

MPG: MPEG compressed video. MPEG video files are compressed video files supported by many newer video cards and display drivers.

WAV: Windows sound files. WAV files are the standard Windows sound format.

Bayonet.Net does not endorse any particular software. Mention of particular software titles below does not constitute endorsement. The files contained on the site and CD are non-proprietary formats that will work with several different programs. The mission of this site to provide images for general use to include web-design and military briefings, publications, and training material. Typically military briefings and training material is presented using presentation software such as Microsoft Power Point. All files provided can be used with Microsoft Power Point provided that the proper graphic filters included with Power Point are installed. Please refer to your software documentation or help files on how to install filters. Keep in mind that if you are running Windows NT, you may need administrative privileges to install filters. You should contact your supporting information management office if you need assistance to do this. Due to the nearly infinite possible combinations of software, operating systems, and computing environments, Bayonet.Net can not provide technical assistance on how to use files with your particular software.

There are several software programs available to allow you to browse images downloaded from our web site or CD. One such program is Thumbs Plus. A free evaluation copy is available from http://www.cerious.com. Thumbs Plus is compatible with all file types included in our site and CD.

You can purchase a copy of our CD by clicking the order button on any page. CCNOW is our authorized on-line retailer. You are purchasing the CD from CCNOW, not from Bayonet.Net, so you credit card statement will reflect CCNOW. CCNOW is an online retail service based in Delaware. They will process your credit card information and billing.

Currently, we our only selling the CD through our online retailer, CCNOW. Due to overhead, we do not take phone or mail orders.

The CD contains over 500MB of graphic, photo, sound and movie files. Our web site contains about 50MB of graphic and photo files, sampling what is on the CD.

If you would like to see your unit’s crest, patch, or photos included on our web site, you can e-mail files to graphics@bayonet.net. Please do not send files larger than 1 MB. If you send multiple files, please compress them into a single zip file.

Do not send copyrighted material. We assume that any material submitted is considered public domain and may be freely distributed. Due to the number of files we receive, we can not credit individual submitters. However, we do greatly appreciate these donations.

We will review all images, and if appropriate post them on our web site. The web site is generally updated quarterly. Due to size and bandwidth considerations we reserve the right to not include extremely large images.

If you would like to link to our site, please link to the main page, http://www.bayonet.net. Do not link to subordinate pages as the URLs may change over time and those links could become invalid.

You are welcomed to include images from our site in your web site. However, please copy the image to your server. Do not use images hosted on our server on your web pages. This generates higher bandwidth on our site and slows the service for other users.

Yes. The original purpose of this web site was to provide Army users a source for clip art to use in briefings, training material, and on army organizational web sites. You do not need to credit Bayonet.net for images that you use.

Power Point has a filter for viewing CGM files. In most cases, even if the filter was not installed when you loaded Power Point, the software will automatically load the filter the first time you try to access a CGM file. However, if you are running under Windows NT and do not have privileges to install drivers, this process is not automatic. To correct the problem you will need to log on as an administrator or contact you information management department to load the driver for you.

We have included CGM files over other formats, because of the high quality of the images delivered by the format. CGM files are vector based images that scale well when resized. They are also smaller and do not add significant size to presentations and other material. This enables users to e-mail their material much more rapidly and does not consume excessive bandwidth.

We do have some images from other services, however the primary purpose of our site is to be a source for clipart of the US Army. Providing detailed sources for insignia, heraldry and equipment of other services is beyond our capacity.

Everyone is encouraged to link directly to our site and refer customers to us to purchase the CD. If you would like to sell our CD at your store or on your site, we can arrange quantity pricing for you. You can then in-turn then sell the product at fair market value.

Our business is not identifying, collecting, or searching for units crests, patches or other heraldry. However, if you have image files of crest or patches you can not identify, you may submit them to use at graphics@bayonet.net. We will attempt to identify them for you; but make no guarantees. If you submit files, submit only files that contain non-copyright material. By submitting files to us, you state that they are public domain and give us permission to redistribute them as we desire.

You might also check your local library or bookstore for books on military crests and patches. There are several useful books on the subject.

Unfortunately, we do not have the time or facilities to research requests of this nature. You best chance is to use the actual crest or patch and have it scanned. Military personnel should contact their local training support center for assistance in creating these images.

No. We deal strictly with computer images, not actual crests or patches. Your best source for these is from your local Military Clothing Sales Store. AAFES has a web site where you can purchase these items online; http://www.aafes.com. AAFES sells to military members, dependents, and retirees. There are also several commercial retailers that sell military crests and patches to the general public. One such retailer is Ranger Joe’s at http://www.rangerjoes.com.

Please feel welcome to contact us with your comments or suggestions (webmaster@bayonet.net).

Now that you have seen some sample images, buy our CD for only $25 that contains over 500MB of high quality images.  Click here to order.

file:///clip_art/faq.html - 29 May 2000 - webmaster@bayonet.net