Have I ever wondered what the kinds of formats of images digital existing? We have the answer to this question, as in this tutorial we will be talking about the most important digital image formats today.
Un digital image format is the one in which the data of a graphic element are stored, be it a photograph, a logo, etc. There are many formats with these characteristics, but some of them have positioned themselves as the most used.
What types of digital image formats exist?
The truth is, there are many image file formats, but there are some that have been positioned as the most relevant. Each of them has its advantages and disadvantages, the most popular formats are undoubtedly the following:
JPG
It has been one of the most popular image formats for many years, it is a lossy compression format which arose out of the need to find a format that would reduce the size of image files.
JPG works very efficiently, significantly reducing the size compared to formats like BMP. This is very good for casual images, however not the best option for the professional, since the quality loss it is evident at least for these conditions.
PNG
The PNG format is named after Portable Network Graphics and is described as a bitmap graphics image format. The format was born in 1995 and offers some advantages over other formats.
One of the main features of this format is that it allows for true transparency, which means that an image in this format can later be used as a sticker or for use within web pages.
Note that you can also convert PNG images to JPG without losing quality if you use the right tools.
BMP
The BMP format is very ancient, having been first developed in 1986 by Microsoft, it has long been the standard in digital images and graphics. In any case, its use has decreased significantly in recent years.
One of the problems with the BMP format is that images they tend to carry considerable weight, as it is not a compression format. Its quality is very good, in any case, if you want to make changes to the image, it is better to opt for another type of format.
Although the weight problem is serious, you can also consider reducing the size of an image with BMP, as there are several methods to do this.
GIF
The GIF format is named after the Graphics Interchange Format, which would be translated as graphic interchange format. This format was released in 1987 but is still very relevant today, it is a lossless format, but on the downside it can only handle 256 colors.
One of the main features of this format, and why it is widely known, is the ability to create animated images. This feature was perhaps the one that killed the format altogether and is still used today on platforms such as WhatsApp or Facebook.
svg
SVG is a vector format, which gradually became very popular, mainly among web developers. It is a scalable format with compression capabilities. In fact, images in this format have a much less weight than that of other formats.
Indeed, this format can be used on personal pages, so it is only fair to know the advantages and disadvantages of SVG on a website, to determine if it is appropriate for this type of use.
RAW format
What we know as RAW isn't exactly a formatrather it refers to all the graphics that have not undergone a compression process. In other words, RAW formats handle very few processed images, which means they can be processed very efficiently.
It is the file type most used by photographers and various creators of graphic contents. With it the material is obtained practically in the raw state. This is useful for editing image files.
After all the information shown above, you may be interested in learning about the differences between PNG, JPG, GIF and BMP, to come to the conclusion of which one is best for each circumstance.
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