A look at image formats

There's quite a lot of image formats out there, but why is it so and what's the difference? Let's take a look at the most common one
A look at image formats

If you ever taken a photo or downloaded an image, you might have seen .jpg/.jpeg or one of the other images formats out there. You might even have wondered why there's so many formats and what are they used for

Different formats

There's a lot of image formats out there, so let's take a look at some of the most common image formats out there and what they're used for

FormatExtensionsDetails
JPEG.jpg, .jpegOne of the most well known image formats out there, is the JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg) format. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Groups
TIFF.tif, .tiffTIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format
Bitmap.bmpMicrosoft created Bitmap (.bmp) for use in Windows and is a proprietary format. It doesn't compress the images, so no information is loss. Which also means the images can become really large. BPM stands for Bitmap Image File
WEBP.webpWEBP is an image format developed by Google for the internet, to reduce file size and the same time keep the image quality as high as possible. Most images you see on this site, is in WEBP format
GIF.gifGIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format
PNG.pngPNG stands for Portable Network Graphics files
RAW.raw, .cr2, .nef, .orf, .sr2, and moreRAW images files (.raw, .cr2, .nef, .orf, .sr2, and more) are used in cameras and scanners, to retain as much information as possible and is mostly intended for profession use. The files get very large, since there's so much information stored. If you're going to edit images, that's when RAW shines. As it stores so much information, you have lots of options when it comes to adjustments. Then when any adjustments is completed, the image is normally exported to one of the other image formats (JPEG/WEBP/PNG/etc), depending on what it will be used for

Why have different formats?

As you can see from the different formats above. Some have distinct reasons to exist, some try to replace older formats and some exist for proprietary reasons

As technology move forward, new solutions are invented that pushes solutions forward. But the rollout of this "improved" format can be slow and by the times they've matured, a new format might already be out that's overtaking it

jpeg was design to overtake older larger format, to allow storing smaller images and as it's been so widespread used, it's also been hard to overtake

Then you have other formats, such as raw that exist in it's own right and is mainly used by professionals. As the files can be enourmous, but it stores a lot of image information without information loss and is perfect for when you'll edit images later in an image editing tools such as Photoshop and GIMP

We sometimes publish affiliate links and these always needs to follow our editorial policy, for more information check out our affiliate link policy

You might also like

Use SSD as boot with Raspberry Pi 4
Tech

Use SSD as boot with Raspberry Pi 4

Where's my link preview Facebook?
Tech

Where's my link preview Facebook?

Globe: Register your pre-paid SIM card
Tech

Globe: Register your pre-paid SIM card

How to enable battery fully charge notification on Samsung phones
Tech

How to enable battery fully charge notification on Samsung phones

How to sign up for GCash
Tech

How to sign up for GCash

8BitDo Ultimate Bluetooth Controller: First Impression
Tech

8BitDo Ultimate Bluetooth Controller: First Impression

MIUI 12: How to stop MIUI from instantly closing background apps
Tech

MIUI 12: How to stop MIUI from instantly closing background apps

Change DNS on your router
Tech

Change DNS on your router

Dealing with slow internet speed on wireless network
Tech

Dealing with slow internet speed on wireless network

Comments

Sign up or Login to post a comment

There are no comments, be the first to comment.