Types of Digital Image Files.

As we see a number of images whether on the Internet or in our phones that have been captured by us only, we never really give much importance to the type of image and in what format it has been captured and stored. Similarly, whenever we download an image from the Internet as a normal user we don't really see what type of image we are downloading. But When we get a little bit technical for example we want to develop a website that will be containing number of images, it might be the logo of our website, it might be some kinds of geometrical shapes like circle or rectangle or it might be the header image of the home page of our website, so now we need to be little bit informative about the type and the size of the images so that when our website gets loaded and should be loaded faster and the images should retain their actual appearance without losing their quality.

In this article of mine, I will be talking about the 5 different types of Digital Image formats, that are mostly used in our normal life and also over the Internet.

1. TIFF(also known as TIF), files that end with .tif: TIFF is short for Tagged Image File Format.These kinds of images are very large in size, the reason behind their larger sizes is that these images are stored as an uncompressed file and thus contains lots of information within them.This information can be the color of the image, the texture of the image, the layers of the image all these things are stored precisely in a TIFF image format. TIFF is a common format used in Photo Software like PhotoShop and also in page layout Software likes Quark and Indesign again because it contains lots of information or image data.


2.  JPEG(also know as JPG), files that end with either .jpeg or .jpg: JPEG is short for Joint Photographic Experts Group, it is the group of the people that comes with JPEG technology. JPEG first compresses the image and then stores it. Although JPEG follows lossy compression technique and some of the data of the image gets lost. As JPEG images are smaller in size, it is one of the most preferred techniques used in digital cameras for storing photos so that more number of photos can be stored.JPEG format is largely supported by the Web cause of its small size and is used in websites cause these images loads faster.JPEG images are not suitable for logos or for line drawings or graphics as the compression is a lossy one, some of the data gets lost and the images started looking a little bit dizzy kind off, not clear rather.


3. GIF, files that end with .gif: Graphic Interchange Format is what GIF refers to, It also uses a compression technique for the storage purpose of images but unlike JPEG it uses Lossless compression technique and the details of image stay as it was and does not gets lost.Although the size of GIF images is bigger when compared to JPEG images. GIF also has a very limited color range support which is suitable for the web but can't be used for printing. Mainly GIF is used for animation.


4. PNG, files that end with .png: PNG refers to Portable Network Graphics, the intention behind the development of PNG is to replace GIF because the patent of GIF was with a company and no one was interested in paying a fee for using the GIF format.PNG also allows a full range of color support and better compression. Web images are mostly in PNG format and in websites also PNG images are preferred, in android app development also PNG images are recommended. If your image is containing text along with some picture then PNG is best suitable for it. Whenever you take a screenshot in MAC computer or laptop the screenshot is stored in PNG format, cause screenshot contains text as well as pictures.


5. RAW image files: Raw is a format for Cameras, generally most of the DSLR cameras shoots in raw format only, as raw doesn't compress the data and maintain each and every small detail regarding an image. It is called raw because it is unprocessed and can not be directly used for editing or for printing purpose.The professional Photographers always uses RAW format for the capturing of images as it provides them the complete freedom of processing and it provides them more level of brightness and white balance in comparison to some other image format. Each and every Camera Manufacturer comes with their own version of raw format. RAW images are much larger in size when compared to JPEG that can sometimes prove a headache for storage.

My intention is to provide a little insight into the various image formats that we use in our daily life and we tend to see over the web, I hope now you guys have the idea behind different formats of images and their usage.