There are several image formats that can be used to create pictures on a computer. They can be very confusing to decide which ones to use and when to use them. I will discuss three different formats and attempt to identify when they should be used.
The first format is GIF or Graphic Interchange Format. In recent years they have become very popular for creating animated images. Some of the drawbacks for GIFs are that they allow for only 8 bits per pixel with a maximum of 256 colors available. The small color pallet makes it an undesirable format for photographs. The UNISYS Corporation patents GIFs compression process, and as of 1994 the company implemented a license fee if developers used GIFs requiring this compression process.
The format JPEG or Joint Photographic Experts Group allows you to use the full 16.7 million colors available in the color palette. This makes the JPEG format very desirable for photographs. JPEG images compress the file size very well compared to its GIF counterpart. JPEGs also allow you to control the amount of file compression used. The downside is the more you compress the file size the more you compromise the image quality. Another downside is while GIFs allow for the use of transparent colors and animation, JPEG does not.
The third format is PNG or Portable Network Graphics. PNGs us a free and open file format and can display more colors than GIFs. It offers true color images up to 48 bits per pixel. It does allow for transparent colors, but cannot be used for animated images unlike GIFs.
Example of a GIF Image
Example of a PNG Image
Example of a JPEG Image
Thanks for Visiting My Image Comparison Page!
