OK, Let's stick with the basics. There are dozens of different image file formats, so we have decided to stick to some of the most basic types.
OK, Let's stick with the basics. There are dozens of different image file formats, so we have decided to stick to some of the most basic types.
The BMP or the Bitmap
is the oldest of the four that we are going to talk about. A bitmap image
defines the color of every pixel in the image. This is great for high quality
images but it uses a lot of memory. A bitmap image uses 24 bits to save one
pixel, so a 500 x 500 image has 250,000 pixels which is using 750,000 bytes
of space. Thanks to technology though, there are newer and better ways of
saving space when creating images.
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The CompuServe GIF
is a very common way of compacting bitmap images. The CompuServe GIF uses
a format called color + numberofpixels where it records the color and then
records the number of pixels it uses and uses this information when loading
it to produce the correct picture. Therefore instead of storing the information
for every pixel it just stores the information described above and saves much
more room. This works well when an image has a lot of same-color blocks. Though
this is a good format, it has been entangled in many legal battles and may
not be as widely used anymore.
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JPEG (pronounced
jay-peg) stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, after the group that
designed the format. It is basically a compression tool for images. The compression
makes the file smaller but can also make the picture more pixilated which
has less quality.
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The Portable Network
Graphics (PNG) format is one of the most recent formats. This format was created
as freeware in response to the CompuServe GIF problems. The PNG format is
much more versatile than both the CompuServe GIF and JPEG. Although it is
not a format used in animation, it is still very useful in compacting images
while keeping a higher quality.
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