And that’s when we come across several strange acronyms that don’t make much sense at first glance. You know, those that come at the end of the file name and don’t seem to make much of a difference.
BUT THEY HAVE IT!
These are the different image formats.
Actually, acronyms are the extensions corresponding to formats. And that is what I will talk about today.
But first, you need to understand what a format is and what image types are .
Types of image
To begin, let’s understand that, as already explained in our exclusive article on graphic design , there are two types of images, digitally speaking:
Bitmap and vector .
Don’t confuse formats with types! These two types of images will be discussed in this article on image formats. They have some differences and directly affect the way they are used.
Bitmap
Also known as “bitmap” (literal translation) or raster image (from the English raster ), it is one of the most common types of images.
Bitmaps are literally a map of bits. This means that the image is made up of many tiny dots (pixels).
Each pixel is assigned a color and, through X and Y coordinates, those colored pixels are positioned on a mesh and thus form an image.
The photos are bitmaps.
Vectors
These are images based on polygons formed by points. These points are interpreted by the computer taking into account their distances.
As such, vectors are infinitely scalable. You can enlarge a vector as much as you like, as there is no loss of resolution in the process.
Vectors present a smaller amount of detail than a bitmap due to their limitations, however, there are artists who develop techniques using vectors that approximate the graphics of real photos, as in the example:
Now that we know the difference between these two types of files, let’s learn about the different image formats.
BMP
The meaning of this acronym is, literally, bitmap.
In the 1990s, many images with the “ .BMP” extension could be found on the Internet. The problem is that BMP file compression rates are very low, which results in files being very large (so that the image does not lose resolution).
Therefore, we do not recommend using this format.
TIFF
Also known as TIF, this is the image format that is widely used for printing files. It is very versatile and maintains resolution, allows the use of layers, among others, but it is also a very heavy format.
Which means it is not suitable for digital use.
JPEG
Also known as JPG, it is the most famous of the formats used digitally. Its adjustable compression rate is what encourages its use in digital media.
Through that possibility, you can balance image quality/size.
Still, even at the minimum compression, the file size doesn’t end up that big.
It is highly recommended for digital media
however, they do not have the alpha channel (transparency).
The acronym stands for Graphics Interchange Format and was the first image format with a high compression rate, which significantly reduced the size of images and enabled rapid downloading.
It became popular because it features interlaced technology , which allows the image to be loaded gradually. This way, the user can stop the loading by having only part of the image loaded.
Another factor that made the use of GIFs much easier at the beginning of the Internet was the possibility of having images with a transparent background (alpha channel) and also because they could be a non-static medium.
GIFs have a color limitation: only 256 colors. This means that very complex images lose a lot of detail.
Today, GIFs are practically synonymous with animation. This format allows multiple images to be displayed in sequence, creating a clip without audio.
Animated GIFs have a very high engagement rate, whether they are funny, memes, or animated infographics like this one .
We highly recommend using them in your digital marketing strategy
Produce unique animations, taking care with the amount of detail and colors.
Static GIF X Animated GIF
As already mentioned, GIF is a very versatile image format that, when it was created, presented innovative possibilities for the time, becoming very popular all over the Internet!
As data transmission media evolved, the Internet became faster and static GIF images became very outdated.
We want sharp, detailed images, but the 256-color limitation of GIFs has made images in this format obsolete.
Even though they allow transparency (alpha channel), this transparency has many limitations and presents aliasing (when the pixels are too exposed and it seems that there is an error in the image). Therefore, when we need static images with transparency, we use PNG.
Could this be the death of the GIF? Definitely not!
The versatility of GIFs keeps them going kenya mobile database strong on the internet, by making animation possible!
Animations run at approximately 15 frames per second (i.e. 15 images displayed every second). That speed makes the limitations of GIFs not as noticeable (or just not as bothersome).
Plus, while the quality isn’t amazing and the motion isn’t that fluid, the loading is very fast. So, one thing makes up for another, and the animated GIF continued to be popular.
PNG
We can say that PNG is like a GIF 2.0.
The acronym stands for Portable Network Graphics.
In 1995, the GIF compression algorithm (LZW) was proposed. So Adobe invested in the creation of a new format that could replace GIF and, why not, make it even better.
PNG, although it does not support animations, has several advantages over GIF.
- It has an infinitely greater color variation than GIFs (which is only 256 colors).
- It also has the additional alpha channel, even enabling opacity variations which prevents images from aliasing and expands the application possibilities of the image.
- It uses a very efficient compaction algorithm, generating images of very high quality and a reasonable size for current Internet standards.
This is currently the most suitable format to use in your digital strategies, as it has an appropriate bit size and maintains very high image quality!
The acronym stands for Portable Document Format and was created by Adobe in 1993.
There was a need for a universal file type that would work independently of the software used to run it, the operating system, its resolution and size.
PDFs are very versatile, because they can store bitmaps, vectors, texts, they can have multiple pages, among countless other functions.
We recommend that PDFs be used in the following situations:
- Files for printing
- Brand manuals (file containing your logo and all the explanations and considerations about it)
- Ebooks.
EPS
It stands for Encapsulated PostScript .
We recommend using it only for storing vector graphics with solid colors (no gradients). If in doubt, use PDF
SVG
The acronym stands for Scalable Vector Graphics.
A free format (not affiliated with any company).
This format quickly became popular due to its advantages of a physical tiny size and infinite scalability.
We recommend using this format if you are working with your company logo, icons within a site, and animations in HTML 5.0 .
Social media can’t yet handle the burden of this format.
What is the alpha channel?
After using this term a few times in content, I remembered that maybe not everyone knows what the alpha channel is.
They didn’t know what the channels were either.
So here’s a full explanation:
Digital images have three color channels: Red (R), Green (G) and Blue (B). These are the three “light colors” that our eyes identify.
Computer screens emit these three colors and, through their fusion and alteration of intensity, we also see the other colors.
A digital image file, therefore, has those three colors in its composition.
Choose the most efficient formats
Evaluate which formats are most interesting for your strategy!
I believe that with the content of this article, you will be able to optimize the development of your company’s graphic material, using the ideal formats for each occasion.
Did I leave any format out of the list? Any important asb directory data that has not been mentioned? Do you have any questions? Leave them in the comments and I will answer you as soon as possible!
See you next time!
