It’s incredible to imagine in a world like ours, but 7% of websites use no images at all.
What is the undisputed king of image file format on the web today? By almost 5.5% the winner is PNG. PNG, JPEG, GIF — what are these odd acronyms all about?
There is a dizzying array of acronyms to remember for the common image file formats. Don’t worry though, we’re going to help you keep straight with a guide to common image file formats. You’ll be an expert on the types of image files, including PNG, in no time.
Keep reading to find out!
Types of Image Files: Vector or Raster?
There are two types of image file categories to cover before we talk image file formats. Those two categories are:
- Raster
- Vector
Raster image types generally map pixels individually by coordinate and color. If you have an 800 pixel by 600 pixel image and make it “full HD” at 1920×1080 pixels you’ve increased the size of the image by 432%.
That increase in size means that it’s also 4 times lower in resolution. So low that text is probably not readable at all. Blurry objects in an image will become indistinct in most cases.
There are some exceptions we’ll get to sometime later, though.
Vector image types work on math, rather than pixels. Vector information is stored as curves and lines with stroke or fill colors assigned to them. If you were to look at the raw data, it would just be computer code.
The text you type in a text box or word processor is actually displayed as a series of vector images. Vector images are good for complex shapes displayed at any size, such as a logo. Because they are resized without any loss of information, it’s a “lossless” file type.
Now that you have that information under your belt, we’ll give you some examples. As well, you’ll learn when, why, and how they’re used.
Common Image File Format Types
Mentioning “common” image file formats can be tricky, because some people will see some much more often than others. Some you might never see, unless you’re in a certain field.
Regardless, a list of the most common image file formats could go something like this:
- Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
- Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG or JPG)
- High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF)
- Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)
- Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG)
- WebP (WebP)
- Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
- Encapsulated PostScript (EPS)
You can see some familiar favorites in the list, such as GIF, JPEG, and PNG, but let’s try to make some sense of this.
PNG and APNG
PNG and APNG are essentially the same things, except that the former PNG file format is being extended to add animations. PNG files, or “ping” files, are widely used across the internet because they also allow for transparency.
This allows people to use a logo in a setting that doesn’t have a white box around it, like in the early days of the internet. APNG files are a growing reply to GIF files being big, difficult to make, and sucking up a lot of memory real-estate. PNG files are also high resolution and can be lossy or lossless in their storage capabilities.
As you can see, they’re very versatile.
GIF and the History of the Internet
Pronounced “Giff” or “Jiff”, GIF files are limited to only 256 colors but allow for transparency and animation. It’s little wonder why, then, even with a big data footprint, GIFs have been used since June 15, 1987 — more than 30 years!
In that time, there’s been a love-hate relationship with GIFs, including their pronunciation.
The GIF has enabled a meme-laden culture since the mid-2000s and into the 2020s. GIFs have notoriously bad resolution and long load times because its data-heavy nature.
Two technologies are here to eventually replace it, APNG and WebP.
WebP — Google’s Gift to Servers and Page Load Speed
Google started developing WebP because of a convergence of several image file problems. Google’s philosophy is to replace all major image technologies with a single file type that does everything better. They want better fidelity, animations, and quicker load times.
Conversion from PNG to WebP, on the other hand, results in about a 45% reduction in file size without losing sharpness and visibility in the image. There are even size savings as compared to JPEG, but with better visibility.
WebP was announced in 2010, but it took 10 years for the file format to start making waves. It’s now supported by all major and most minor browsers. It might be worthwhile to consider converting to WebP soon if you aren’t already.
JPEG Compresses the Internet
In 1972 a brilliant young electrical engineer and computer scientist named Nasir Ahmed proposed discrete cosine transformation, or DCT, for image compression.
JPEG was a wonderful piece of computer science — in 1992. Now, with high-res screens and 4k image spaces, it’s inefficient and can add to server and website bloat. If a JPEG is recompressed at a higher quality level than it originally was compressed it can have degraded quality but a higher file size.
Despite more than 90% of websites using JPEG it’s losing ground to newer technologies.
Apple and HEIF — A Match Made in Rivalry
HEIF has been around for a little while but never had much support. HEIF is competing with PNG, JPEG, and now WebP for a lossy or lossless compression standard that retains high quality at high compression.
Apple has jumped on the bandwagon, unwilling to use WebP until recently adding support in Safari. The MPEG organization developed the HEIF standard.
SVG and EPS
SVG and EPS are two vector-based file formats used for different purposes. Browsers use SVG for images, objects, and animations on websites, apps, and consumer use. SVGs have infinite scalability.
EPSs are generally raw files for professionals and don’t have browser or consumer-level app support. Many logos are exported as SVG for infinite sizing. Commonly, professionals use EPSs because they record layer information while SVGs do not.
Which Image File Format Works for You?
Offdrive is simply the best image conversion website around. We know that you have different needs for every image file format you use.
If you have a question about specific file types, keep reading our blog for the latest info and news on file conversion.
Don’t forget to also check out our spreadsheet, archive, and document conversion tools, too! We even have PDF to EPUB!