Common File Formats

Common File Formats

1. JPEG Files

   • Uses
     • JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Expert Group
     • It is one of the main file formats for images on the Web.
     • Ideal for Photographs and digital images.
     • JPEG compresses the original image.
     • Uses 16 million
   • Advantages
     • Maximum colours of 16.7 million colours
     • Can be opened and viewed in almost all image viewing applications.
     • JPEG images are compressed-smaller in storage size and easier to attach to an email
   • Disadvantages
     • Because images are compressed, it has a significant loss in quality.
     • JPEG files cannot have transparent backgrounds.

2. GIF Files

   • Uses
     • GIF stands for Graphical Interchange Format
     • It is one of the main file formats for images that is used on the Internet
     • Used for simple graphics
     • Uses compression to make the file size smaller
   • Advantages
     • They are small in size as the image file is compressed.
   • Disadvantages
     • Only 256 colours are used so does not look the same as the original image.

3. PNG files

   • Uses
     • Stands for Portable Network Graphics
     • Uses compression that creates a compressed image without losing any quality.
     • Uses 16 million colours
   • Advantages
     • The image does not lose any quality when compressed,
     • Has a wide amount of colours
   • Disadvantages
     • File size is slightly larger than JPEG and GIF.

4. TIFF Files

   • Uses
     • Stands for Tagged Image File Format.
     • Bitmap image format
     • Ideally suited for scanned images, imagesd with continuous colours and photographs.
   • Advantages
     • Widely used
     • Can be easily modified
     • Can have a wide range of colours.
   • Disadvantages
     • Large file size- take up a lot of storage space
     • Takes a long time to upload and download to the internet

5. PSD Files

   • Uses
     • Stands for Photoshop Document
     • Popular piece of software used for creating and modifying images
   • Advantages
     • Produces very high quality images
   • Disadvantages
     • File sizes are large as there is no compression
     • Takes a while to upload and download to the internet

6. BMP files

   • Uses
     • Pictures using Windows Paint can be saved as BMP files as digital photographs can be too
   • Advantages
     • It supports millions of colours
   • Disadvantages
     • Large file size
     • Takes a long time to upload and download

7. EPS files

   • Uses
     • Stands for Encapsulated PostScript
     • Standard format for importing and exporting PostScript files
     • Can contain text, graphics and images
   • Advantages
     • Has many essentials features such as colour management and colour modes
   • Disadvantages
     • Large file size