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Image Formats

What is it?

  • An image file format may store data in uncompressed, compressed, or vector formats.

  • The most common image file formats, the most important for cameras, printing, scanning, and internet use, are JPG, PNG, and GIF on web.

Graphics File Format

Raster Graphics

(made of pixels)

jpg, gif, bmp, tiff etc

Vector Graphics

(made of lines, shapes, and path points)

svg, cgm etc

  • Vector can be rasterized for use on a computer display or printer.

  • Once rasterized, an image becomes a grid of pixels.

  • Both Lossy and lossless refer to file compression techniques applied to digital media, i.e., images, audio and video.

Lossy Compression

  • Smaller compressed files, but some number of the original pixels are removed forever.

  • File size decreases.

  • A lossy image type you see a lot on the web is JPEG.

Lossless Compression

  • No data loss between the compressed asset and the original.

  • File size remains same.

  • Lossless image formats you can easily find on the web are GIF and PNG.

Image File Formats

Blue Pen .jpg

File name

File extension

  • Check file extension of your any image file.

  • See which image format is it.

Different Image Formats

  • There are numerous image file types out there.

  •  Here are some common image formats for the web and computer graphics.

JPEG : ( .jpg, .jpeg )

  • JPEG or JPG is a lossy image format developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group.

  • The compression does create a loss in quality and less the quality.

  • Does not support transparency.

Magic Mouse .jpg

Filename

File extension

  • 24-bit color, with up to 16 million colors.

  • Rich colors, great for photographs that need fine attention to color detail.

  • Most used and most widely accepted image format.

  • Compatible with most OS (Mac, PC, Linux).

GIF : ( .gif )

  • GIF or Graphics Interchange Format files are widely used for web graphics because they are limited to only 256 colors.

  • Lossless quality – they contain the same amount of quality as the original.

New Tab .gif

File name

File extension

  • File size is usually pretty low.

  • Support for transparency.

  • Support for animation. This makes them suited to display looping animated images like icons, emoticons, banners, etc.

PNG : ( .png )

  • PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics.

  • It’s an alternative format to GIF, which was developed by the W3C. 

  • PNG files are able to handle up to 16 million colors, unlike the 256 colors supported by GIF.

Blue Pen .png

File name

File extension

  • Lossless, so it does not lose quality and detail after image compression.

  • In a lot ways better then GIF. To start, PNG often creates smaller file sizes than GIF.

  • Supports transparency better than GIF.

Bitmap : ( .bmp )

  • BMP or Bitmap Image File is a format developed by Microsoft for Windows.

  • These files are large and uncompressed, but the images are rich in color, high in quality.

  • It might be an 8-bit, 16-bit or 24-bit image.

Blue Pen .bmp

Filename

File extension

  • Does not scale or compress well.

  • Again, huge image files making it not web friendly.

  • No real advantage over other image formats.

SVG : ( .svg )

  • Stands for Scalable Vector Graphics.

  • It is an XML-based vector file type. 

  • Use SVG code inside the HTML markup.

Twitter.svg

Filename

File extension

  • Used in web, mages like logos, maps, icons, etc.

  • It looks sharp whatever the screen resolution

RAW Image Files : ( .raw, .cr2, .nef, .orf, .sr2, and more )

  • The unprocessed image that has been created by a camera or scanner.

  • They hold a lot of image information.

  • Still, need to be processed in an editor such as Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. 

Image1.nef

File name

File extension

  • Need to be processed.

  • Best for photography.

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