Image File Formats Explained In Easiest Way! Don’t Save Your Masterpiece In Wrong Format!

     Let’s think of the time when you finally finished working on your Art piece or that Logo or that Portrait you spent a whole day on… You finally save it But wait until you are greeted with this screen. Now, You just name the file and save it naively. You didn’t even realise that you just lost the Image quality of your Art piece by saving it in JPEG. Now, you don’t want that to happen again, Which is why you should read this entire article or at least key points carefully. And if you want to know the best smartphone camera to shoot amazing photos click here.

     There is some basic information you should know about Image Graphics. There are two types of Image Graphics- Raster Graphics and Vector Graphics. A Raster Graphics image is a dot matrix data structure that represents a generally rectangular grid of pixels. A Vector Graphics image on the other hand is defined in terms of 2D points, Which are connected by lines and curves to form polygons and other shapes. Now, Lets head on to file formats under each graphics.

Raster Image Graphics

  JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

·       Small File Size

·       Colour Accuracy

·       Widely Compatible

·        Loss of Sharpness

    Except the fancy name JPEG is a commonly used file format for saving files and most of the files downloaded from the internet are in JPEG. JPEG files are compressed and have very less file size. This is achieved by Lossy Compressions, Which is the class of data encoding method that uses inexact approximations and partial data to represent an image. What this means is it discards or deletes access of data by comparing an 8×8 block of pixels and then determining which block contributes least or similar and then discards it. This file format is used for photographs and is terrible for Signs and objects as it is not sharp and leaves nasty endings.

  GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

·       Animations are supported

·       Only 256 Colours supported

·       Transparency supported

·       Sharp Edges

    GIF is one of the more popular file formats as it supports quick animations. It is widely used to make jokes or short representation. It is preferred over JPEG as it also supports Transparency and uses lossless compression. As it uses lossless compressions it provides sharp edges and corners. One of it’s major disadvantage if none is that it only supports 256 Colours. Thus, Some images appear to be grainy and distorted.

  PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

·       Better Image Quality

·       Sharp and Better Edges

·       Better and Accurate Colours

·       Huge File Sizes

·       Transparency Support

   PNG is a file format created to compete with GIF as at the time GIF was patent of a company and nobody wanted to pay the licensing fees. PNG is used for saving files containing Signs, Logos, Intricate Patterns and Complex Designs. PNG uses lossless compression which keeps sharp edges and corners and maintains colour accuracy. PNG also like GIF supports Transparency which contributes to better Logos and Signs. All these advantages of PNG make its file size huge. PNG is not generally used on the internet except by creative professionals.

  TIFF Or TIF (Tagged Image File Format)

·       Better for Editing By Professionals

·       No Compression Used

·       No Degradation In Quality

·       Huge File Size In Megabytes

    TIFF is used by professionals who need highest quality photos without losing any information. To give as much information no compression takes place. Due to no compression the file size becomes massive. An equivalent photo taken in JPEG will be 1.38KB but the same in TIFF can go up to 100MB. This file format is used by professionals only who edit photos many times and do not want to compromise with quality at the cost of storage.

Vector Image Graphics

·      .AI

·      .EPS

·      .PDF

·      .SVG

    Vector Image Graphics file format types include .AI, .EPS, .PDF, and .SVG files. Vector files such as AI and EPS can be opened later after saving and still be edited in illustrator or such supported programs. This gives you the credibility to edit any text or other elements within graphics.

RAW IMAGES

    RAW Images are the ones shot from a camera sensor. These images are often referred to as Digital Negative, It may be a surprise to you that RAW Images are not a file format at all. It is like the rolls we used earlier in camera. The images include information on what the sensor originally captured. Various camera companies have their own file formats. There are specific programs which make a digital representation on your device.

     This is all there is to know about file formats in terms of images and pros and cons of each. These file formats are the ones which are used widely. Now you know what these different file format types mean and what they offer you. We hope that now you won’t save your Company logo as a JPEG file. For more of such information on tech and latest happenings in the tech world, Subscribe to Rohan Wayangankar’s Blog.

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