For designers, choosing the right file format for saving your images is of vital importance. There are six major image file formats used consistently in the design field — TIFF, GIF, JPG, BMP, WBMP, and PNG. Each format is well suited to a specific type of image, and by matching your image to the correct format, you should benefit from a fast-loading graphic. It’s also important to understand how these file formats work in certain applications. So, enjoy checking out these six image file formats.
TIFF – The TIFF (Tagged Information File Format) is a file format used for storing images such as line art and photographs. It was originally developed by Aldus (now Adobe Systems) and Microsoft. This is a popular format for high color depth images and it is supported by many image-manipulation programs such as Pagemaker, QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign, PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro, etc. Tiff is extremely high in its image quality, providing excellent compatibility with publishing companies. Tiff can be modified and resaved, with the images being used an endless number of times without losing any image data. In addition, the image is extremely usable since it doesn’t require software post-processing during or after its download from a camera. It is a flexible and adaptable format.
GIF – The Graphic Interface Format is an image file format that was originally developed in 1987 by Unisys using the LZW compression algorithm. It is mostly used for vector graphics and other simple, limited color images. For years it has been a standard image format used on the web. However, it has seen its share of difficulties due to licensing restrictions and requirements placed on it by Unisys. In 1989, they also developed Gif89a which allowed animated images. While GIF has enjoyed a significant presence on the Internet, it is being phased out by the emergence of PNG.
JPG/JPEG – JPEG is a commonly used compression method for photographic images. The name “JPEG” stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the name of the committee that created the standard. The group was organized in 1986, issuing this standard in 1992 and finally approving it in 1994. The degree of compression may be adjusted to allow a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. Typically, JPEG achieves 10 to 1 compression with little perceivable loss in image quality. In addition to being a compression method, JPEG is often considered to be a file format. JPEG is the most common image format used by digital cameras and other photographic image capture devices. It is also the most common format for storing and transmitting photographic images on the World Wide Web.
BMP – The BMP file format, sometimes called bitmap or DIB file format (for device-independent bitmap), is an image file format used to store bitmap digital images, especially on Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems. The simplicity of the BMP file format and its widespread familiarity in Windows and elsewhere makes it a very common format that image processing programs from many operating systems can read and write. Another reason for the widespread use of this format is due to it being well documented and free of patents. While most BMP files have a relatively large file size due to lack of any compression, many BMP files can be considerably compressed with lossless data compression algorithms such as ZIP since they contain redundant data.
WBMP – This is short for Wireless Bitmap, a graphic format optimized for mobile computing devices. This is a relatively new file format that only supports monochrome images at the moment. A WBMP image is identified using a TypeField value, which describes encoding information (such as pixel and palette organization, compression, and animation) and determines image characteristics according to WAP documentation. TypeField values are represented by an Image Type Identifier. Currently, there is only one type of WMBP specified; the Image Type Identifier label for this is 0. 0 has the following characteristics:
- No compression
- One bit color (white=1, black=0)
- One bit deep (monochrome)
Any WAP device that supports WBMPs can only support type 0.
WBMP is part of the Wireless Application Protocol, Wireless Application Environment Specification Version 1.1. PNG – Portable Network Graphics is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression similar to that of a GIF file. PNG was created to improve upon and replace the GIF format, as an image-file format not requiring a patent license. It was basically created in direct rebuttal of Unisys’ licensing requirements for using the GIF format. PNG supports palette-based (palettes of 24-bit RGB colors), grayscale, or RGB images.
PNG was designed for transferring images on the Internet, not professional graphics, and so does not support other color spaces (such as CMYK). PNG works very well for geometric or line drawings, lettering, cartoons, and other images with flat color and sharp borders, such as computer screenshots.
PNG is mostly superior to GIF, as it is newer, supports more colors, and is free of patent restrictions. Unfortunately, PNG cannot be used for animation. However, it does offer highly sophisticated transparency and color support, among other features. In most cases where animation is not required, it is best to use PNG over GIF.
It’s interesting to note each formats strengths and weaknesses. Overall, each of them definitely displays benefits in certain applications. As a designer, I guess the best way to approach these is to know ahead of time what the ultimate application and use for a certain image is going to be prior to creating it. Do you have a particular favorite as far as image files are concerned? If you do, please let us know what file format you prefer and why. We would enjoy hearing from you!
