Image Formats
By Matt Oakes on the 30th of January 2005
Skip to the Table of ContentsThere many formats you can save your image in. All of them have there good and bad points, and they are made for different things. This will just be a quick guide to the main formats that you can save images in. I will also have a spectrum image saved in that format so you can see the quality.
BMP
BMP is the default windows image format.
Good:
- Good Quality
Bad:
- Massive files
- Big loading times
Verdict:
This is not a format you would use on the web that much as the files are very big and the images will take a while to load.
GIF
32 colors
64 colors
128 colors
Web quality
The GIF format is a format made for the web.
Good:
- Fair file sizes
- Quick to load
Bad:
- Not very good quality due to its 128 color maximum.
Verdict:
This is a good format to use for web images because it was created for that purpose but the lack of colors makes it no good for high quality images.
JPEG
High quality
Medium quality
Low quality
A JPEG is a format that is great for pictures.
Good:
- Good Quality
- Smaller files than BMP's
Bad:
- Only good for pictures
Verdict:
This is one of the best formats for photographs but it is not the best for web graphics and so on.
PNG
256 colors
128 colors
64 colors
32 colors
The PNG was made as the next generation GIF format. It was made for the web.
Good:
- Very Good Quality
- Alpha Transparency (Lets you choose what colors will be classed as transparent)
- Very small files
Bad:
- Not fully supported by Internet Explorer
Verdict:
This is the best format in my opinion but its a shame that Internet Explorer hasn't bothered to add in full support for this new format. The transparency wont work in IE at all.
