Have I ever asked what are the types of digital image formats that exist? We have the answer to this question, since in this tutorial we will talk precisely about the most important digital image formats today.
A digital image format is one in which the data of a graphic is stored, be it a photograph, a logo, etc. There are many formats with these characteristics, but some of them have been positioned as the most used.
What are the types of digital image formats that exist?
The truth is that there are many image file formats, but there are a few that have been positioned as the most relevant. Each one of them has its advantages and disadvantages, the most popular formats being undoubtedly the following:
JPG
It has been one of the most popular image formats for many years, it is a lossy compression format that was born out of the need to find a format that would reduce the size of image files.
JPG works very efficiently, greatly reducing the size relative to formats like BMP. This is very good for casual images, in any case, it is not the best option for the professional, since the loss of quality is noticeable at least for these conditions.
PNG
The PNG format gets its name from Portable Network Graphics and is described as a bitmap graphics image format. The format was released in 1995 and offers certain advantages in relation to other formats.
One of the main characteristics of this format is that it allows real transparency, which means that an image in this format can later be used as a Sticker or for uses within web pages.
Note that you can also convert PNG images to JPG without losing quality if you use the right tools.
BMP
The BMP format is very old, being developed for the first time in 1986 by Microsoft, it was for a long time the standard in digital images and graphics. In any case, in recent years its use has greatly decreased.
One of the problems of the BMP format is that the images tend to have a considerable weight, since it is not a compression format. Its quality is very good, in any case, if you want to make changes to the image, it is best to opt for another type of format.
While the problem of weight is serious, you can also consider reducing the size of an image with BMP, as there are several methods for this.
GIF
The GIF format gets its name from the Graphics Interchange Format, which would translate as the graphics interchange format. This format was released in 1987, but it is still very current today, it is a lossless format, but on the negative side it can only handle 256 colors.
One of the main characteristics of this format, and that is why it is widely known, is that animated images can be created. This function was perhaps the one that caused the format not to die completely and is still used today on platforms such as WhatsApp or Facebook.
Svg
SVG is a vector format, which little by little has become very popular, mainly among web developers. It is a scalable format with compression capabilities. In fact, images in this format have a much lower weight than other formats.
In fact, this format can be used on personal pages, so it is only fair to know the advantages and disadvantages of SVG on a website, to determine if it is appropriate for this type of use.
RAW format
What we know as RAW is not exactly a format, rather it refers to all those graphics that have not gone through a compression process. In other words, RAW formats handle very little processed images, which means that they can be processed very efficiently.
It is the type of file most used by photographers and different creators of graphic content. With it the material is obtained practically in a raw state. This is convenient for editing image files.
After all the information shown before, you may be interested in knowing the differences between PNG, JPG, GIF and BMP, to reach the conclusion of which one is better for each circumstance.
