Image File Formats

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Ever wonder what was the difference between .jpg or .gif was? Well, image file formats, in general, are international formats of organizing and storing images. Computer images are composed of either pixels or vectors. This guide will explain the disadvantages and advantages of image file formats mainly used in both web and graphic design. All the file formats described below are raster image formats which are composed of individual pixels.

Joint Photographics Experts Group (JPEG/JPG)

JPEG/JPG files are commonly used for digital camera photo files and smaller sized files. The disadvantage is that lower sized files have noticebly poor quality because they are compressed.

When saved at higher quality, the files become larger, thus harder to load due to being uncompressed. When the any JPEG/JPG file is repeatedly edited or saved, they lose more and more quality. Unfortunately, JPEG/JPG files does not enable transparency.

Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)

Due to the fact GIF files are limited to 256 colours, GIF files should only be used for images with very few colours. For instance, small animations. Fortunately, GIF files enable transparency.

Portable Network Graphics

Similar to GIF files, PNG files enable transparency. However, PNG files contain 16 million colours, therefore their images have more quality compared to GIF files. Unfortunately, larger PNG files have a larger size than JPEG/JPG files. In addition, older browsers do not support it. Luckily, all up-to-date browsers support the file format.

Proper Usages

smaller banners or medium-sized icons: PNG

pixels, graphs, animations, or small icons: GIF

larger banners or large icons: JPEG/JPG

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