The 5 most typical image formats used are JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, and TIFF. I will try to clarify in simplest terms, their most noticeable variations and purposes they serve.



PNG



Supported by all modern browsers, PNG starts to achieve recognition. It utilizes 'lossless' compression algorithm indicates your image will not have any top quality loss like JPG. Nonetheless the file size is larger than JPG when compressing photographs for the reason that PNG is finest for pictures with mainly strong colors. Use PNG in the event you never care about file size and wanted unquestionable ideal good quality.



One more feature of PNG is transparent color support, means that if a website features a black background for example, the transparent part in the image will appear in black. GIF supports transparent colour as well, but it has been replaced by PNG in this field.



BMP



1st of all, BMP may be the most basic image format in Windows atmosphere. It opens up quite fast, however the major drawback is it cannot be compressed and hence the large file size. Consequently we rarely use it on the web, in no way ever email your friends/colleagues BMP images!



GIF



Once well known around the web, but people are beginning to replace it with PNG. It supports only 256 colors that is bad for photos. The strong point of GIF is that it supports animation. So only use it if you're generating an animated image.



JPG/JPEG



Essentially the most common image format used around the web. It uses compression algorithm which significantly cut down the file size (from 5mb BMP file to 150kb JPG file with minor good quality loss). It really is most effective used to compress photographs without distinct lines/edges. Just before sending any photos to your mates, convert them to JPG first.



For graphs with distinct lines and edges, it really is improved to use PNG format instead.



TIFF



TIFF strengths and weaknesses would be the most distinct. It truly is one of the most flexible format used by numerous image processing software, across all platforms (Windows, Mac, Unix). In the identical time, it's a lossless image format just like PNG. The downside is it can't be used in web browsers, and possessing file size larger than PNG and on par with BMP.



Conclusion:



For daily photos/sharing/posting in Facebook: JPG



For images consists of a couple of main/solid colors, with sharp edges and distinct lines: PNG



For animated photos: GIF



For sharing across various platforms: TIFF



For storing in Windows, once you do not care about file size: BMP