{"id":1662,"date":"2016-08-22T09:49:45","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T13:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/?p=1662"},"modified":"2016-08-22T10:02:55","modified_gmt":"2016-08-22T14:02:55","slug":"what-different-graphics-formats-are-good-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/what-different-graphics-formats-are-good-for\/","title":{"rendered":"What Different Graphics Formats Are Good For"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to graphics on the Internet, it\u2019s easy to feel as though you\u2019re swimming for your life in a giant bowl of alphabet soup, surrounded by shouting acronyms: GIF! JPEG! PNG! TIFF! What do those names mean? Why does your camera spit out JPEGs? What\u2019s the best format for a Web graphic? Grab onto a capital O and let\u2019s get some answers.<\/p>\n<p>First off, don\u2019t worry about the acronyms, because expanding them doesn\u2019t explain much. For example, JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, which is the standards body that invented the JPEG format. Helpful? Not really. So think of them just as names, like Sally or Fred. That said, it can be helpful to know how they\u2019re pronounced:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>GIF: Either \u201cjif,\u201d as in jiffy, or \u201cgif\u201d as in \u201cgift\u201d \u2014 it\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/bits.blogs.nytimes.com\/2013\/05\/23\/battle-over-gif-pronunciation-erupts\/?_r=1\">an interesting story<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>JPEG: \u201cjay-peg\u201d<\/li>\n<li>PNG: \u201cping\u201d<\/li>\n<li>TIFF: \u201ctiff\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here\u2019s the lowdown on each:<\/p>\n<p><b>GIF:<\/b> The oldest of these formats, GIF was long the standard for computer-generated images. It worked well for graphics and logos with large areas of solid color, but less so for photos. Due in part to a patent licensing kerfuffle, GIF has been superseded by PNG in all ways but one.<\/p>\n<p>GIF\u2019s remaining use lies in flipbook-style animations, where each frame is a separate GIF image. Animated GIFs that run in short loops have become wildly popular on the Internet because they\u2019re small and easy to embed in a Facebook or Twitter post, email message, or Web page. Numerous utilities exist for turning a short movie clip into an animated GIF; check out <a href=\"http:\/\/gifbrewery.com\/\">GIF Brewery<\/a> on the Mac or <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/giphy-cam.-the-gif-camera\/id1017480918?mt=8\">Giphy Cam<\/a> for an iPad or iPhone.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/graphics-running-penguin.gif\" alt=\"graphics-running-penguin\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/281;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>JPEG:<\/b> The most common graphics format on the Internet, JPEG owes its popularity to being the default format for photos created by all digital cameras, including those in iPhones and iPads. JPEG works well for photos because it can compress file sizes significantly while barely affecting the image quality.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, a 20 MB photo saved in JPEG format might end up as only 4 MB, with reductions in image quality that most people would never even notice. Most graphics software lets you adjust a slider to specify different quality levels, and while the results vary by the photo, saving at a 75% quality level is usually a good compromise between quality and file size.<\/p>\n<p>The downside of JPEG is that it achieves these minuscule file sizes by throwing away data in the file, which limits how they can be edited in the future. That\u2019s why professional photographers generally shoot in what are called \u201craw\u201d formats (which contain all the image data the camera sensor recorded when the shutter was opened). Raw files are huge but can be edited in ways that aren\u2019t possible with a JPEG file. Once edits have been made, photographers save a copy as a JPEG for sharing or posting online.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/graphics-red-flower-jpeg-1024x767.jpg\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 515px) 100vw, 515px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/graphics-red-flower-jpeg-1024x767.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/graphics-red-flower-jpeg-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/graphics-red-flower-jpeg-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/graphics-red-flower-jpeg-510x382.jpg 510w, https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/graphics-red-flower-jpeg-1080x809.jpg 1080w\" alt=\"graphics-red-flower-jpeg\" width=\"515\" height=\"386\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 515px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 515\/386;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>PNG:<\/b> Conceived as an improved, patent-free alternative to GIF, PNG is now the go-to format for online graphics such as buttons, logos, and screenshots that have large areas of solid color. That\u2019s because PNG can compress such images well without introducing any fuzziness, as can happen with JPEG. Similarly, you can edit PNG images repeatedly without hurting image quality.<\/p>\n<p>In another contrast with JPEG, PNG supports transparency, which means you can define one color in an image as \u201ctransparent\u201d rather than an actual color. When the image is displayed on a Web page, the transparent pixels are rendered in whatever the background color is. That\u2019s tremendously handy for creating images that appear to float over the background.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/graphics-TC-logo-transparent.png\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 193px) 100vw, 193px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/graphics-TC-logo-transparent.png 629w, https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/graphics-TC-logo-transparent-300x200.png 300w\" alt=\"graphics-TC-logo transparent\" width=\"193\" height=\"129\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 193px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 193\/129;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t use PNG for photos, since a photographic image saved in PNG format will be much larger than the corresponding JPEG.<\/p>\n<p><b>TIFF:<\/b> Like PNG, TIFF files can be compressed without losing any data. Because of this, TIFF is used extensively for archiving original photos instead of JPEG; TIFF files may be much larger, but that\u2019s acceptable when it comes to preserving originals from which you could later make edited copies.<\/p>\n<p>TIFF also boasts some additional color-related features that PNG lacks, making TIFF useful in the print world\u2014if you were to write a book that was going to be printed professionally, the publisher might ask for any photos or other illustrations in TIFF format. Useful as TIFF can be, for most people, most of the time, JPEG and PNG are all you need.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly any graphics program can open images in these formats and convert to the other formats, but look no further than the bundled Preview app from Apple on your Mac for basic image conversion features (for more info about using Preview, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.takecontrolbooks.com\/preview_AFL2574345038&amp;at=\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Take Control of Preview<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i>by Adam Engst and Josh Centers)<i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>In closing, now that you know the basics of the Mac\u2019s most important graphics formats, you are ready to put your best foot forward whenever you need to pick a file format for your images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The alphabet soup of graphics formats\u2014GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF\u2014can be tremendously confusing. If you\u2019ve ever wondered which format is best for a particular use, read this post on our blog for an explanation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[39,73,74,75,76,77,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-gif","category-graphics","category-jpeg","category-png","category-preview","category-tiff"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/graphics-formats-photo-1080x675.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YLEm-qO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30686,"url":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/how-to-choose-between-icloud-photos-and-my-photo-stream\/","url_meta":{"origin":1662,"position":0},"title":"How to Choose Between iCloud Photos and My Photo Stream","author":"computeradv","date":"March 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Apple provides two ways of moving photos from your iPhone to your Mac: iCloud Photos and My Photo Stream. Which should you choose? We run through the pros and cons of each.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/how-to-choose-between-icloud-photos-and-my-photo-stream.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/how-to-choose-between-icloud-photos-and-my-photo-stream.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/how-to-choose-between-icloud-photos-and-my-photo-stream.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/how-to-choose-between-icloud-photos-and-my-photo-stream.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/how-to-choose-between-icloud-photos-and-my-photo-stream.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1608,"url":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/taking-screenshots-three-tricks-for-the-mac-and-one-for-ios\/","url_meta":{"origin":1662,"position":1},"title":"Taking Screenshots: Three Tricks for the Mac and One for iOS","author":"computeradv","date":"July 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but the screenshot that captures a confusing error message or funny auto-correct fail is far more valuable. Pop over to our site and we\u2019ll explain how to capture screenshots on your iPad or iPhone, and three different ways you can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"how to take mac screenshots","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/iMac-photo-with-edits-1080x675.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/iMac-photo-with-edits-1080x675.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/iMac-photo-with-edits-1080x675.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/iMac-photo-with-edits-1080x675.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/iMac-photo-with-edits-1080x675.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":26202,"url":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/make-text-bigger-in-safari-on-the-mac\/","url_meta":{"origin":1662,"position":2},"title":"Make Text Bigger in Safari on the Mac","author":"computeradv","date":"January 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Some Web sites have, shall we say, unfortunate choices in fonts. If you run across a site where the font is too small to read, you can choose View > Zoom In or press Command-+ (the Shift key isn\u2019t necessary to get the + symbol; Command-= is the same). 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But what\u00a0is\u00a0a Retina display, and why should you care? The short answer is Retina displays are high-resolution screens on which graphics are extra sharp and text is super crisp. 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