Digital image file types – why so many?
What are the differences between all the digital image file types and are all of them needed? The size of a digital file is expressed as Megabyte (MB). The higher number the more space the file needs on your memory card. Different file types takes up different amount of space on your memory card. Another important issue with the different file types is the way they are compressed. A heavy compressed file will loose some image quality, but you save space.
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is the most commonly used digital image format. This file format is very compatible with web browsers, image viewers, and image editing software. The images can be compressed by a factor of 10 to 20 compared to the uncompressed original with very little loss in image quality. Most files on the web are saved as JPG. The advantage is relatively small file size. Most digital camera stores files as JPG. You can choose how much the file should be compressed by the camera. High compression removes information (pixels) from the file. Once removed, the information is lost forever. If you later want to edit the picture in editing software, you might experience quality loss. As memory card are quite cheap now, I recommend shooting your picture at the maximum of what the camera is capable of doing. TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a flexible image format that normally saves 8 or 16 bits per color – red, green and blue – for a total of 24 or 48 bits. TIFF is a much used file standard in the printing industry because TIFF is capable of handling device-specific color spaces, such as the CMYK. You keep more information in the file as the compression is less and much better that JPG compression. The size of a TIFF file is bigger compared to a JPG. More advanced digital cameras can store files in TIFF format. .
RAW a lossless compressed file format, and by far best way of saving photos as there is no quality loss. Recently RAW has become one of the most important of the digital image file types and the one most mentioned in both photo magazines and on the web. PSD and PSP is the file format used by two of the most common photo editing software on the market - Adobe Photoshop from Adobe and Paint Shop Pro from Corel. These file types are capable of handling layers when editing photos. GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is limited to an 8-bit palette, or 256 colors. This makes the GIF format suitable for storing graphics with relatively few colors such as simple diagrams, shapes, logos and cartoon style images. The GIF format supports animation and is still widely used to provide image animation effects. BMP (Windows bitmap) is used internally in the Microsoft Windows operating system to handle graphics images. These files are typically not compressed, resulting in large files. The main advantage of BMP files is their wide acceptance, simplicity, and use in Windows programs.
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