{"id":386,"date":"2017-02-12T15:36:33","date_gmt":"2017-02-12T15:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/?page_id=386"},"modified":"2025-08-25T21:22:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T21:22:50","slug":"image-formats","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/image-formats\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"left\">\n<h3><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Image file formats<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><strong>There are three main types of digital image file formats,<\/strong> classified by their position in the production process:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Camera capture formats<\/strong>, such as Camera Raw (non-lossy) or JPG (lossy)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Editing formats,<\/strong> like Photoshop&#8217;s\u00a0 .psd or Gimp&#8217;s\u00a0 .xcf\n<ul>\n<li>Also called &#8220;original&#8221; or &#8220;native&#8221; formats<\/li>\n<li>Saving in\u00a0 .psd or .xcf retains layers and other work underway<\/li>\n<li>Can&#8217;t be opened by web browsers or any other application<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Interchangeable formats<\/strong> (can be opened by any image editor)\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Formats for web\u00a0<\/strong> &#8211;\u00a0 .gif,\u00a0 .jpg,\u00a0 \u00a0.png, .heic,\u00a0 .webp \u00a0 (All are compressible, or &#8220;lossy;&#8221;\u00a0 .heic and .webp are newest and most flexible)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Formats for printing<\/strong> &#8212;\u00a0 .pdf and\u00a0 .tiff\u00a0 (.tiff is not for web, but .pdfs can be read by web browsers. )<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #444444;\">This is a simplified overview of the most significant formats, attributes and\u00a0 uses.<\/span><\/p>\n<table style=\"padding-left: 30px; height: 880px;\" border=\"2\" width=\"966\" cellspacing=\"3\" cellpadding=\"6\" bgcolor=\"#e5fff4\">\n<tbody style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<tr style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#CCFFFF\">\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 60px;\" width=\"100\"><span class=\"style3\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><b>Name<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" width=\"100\"><span class=\"style3\"><b>Channels<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" width=\"100\"><span class=\"style3\"><b>Mode<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" width=\"300\"><span class=\"style3\"><b>Color depth<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" width=\"50\"><span class=\"style3\"><b>Suffix<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" width=\"116\"><strong>Pro \/ Con\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" width=\"154\"><span class=\"style3\"><b>Typical Use<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Raw_image_format\"><span class=\"style3\">Raw \u00a0<\/span><\/a><span class=\"style3\">\u00a0 \u00a0(camera capture \/ input)\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span class=\"style3\">3\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><b>Raw\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFCC\">\u00a012 or 14 bits\u00a0 per channel (4096-16384 shades)<\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\">Depends on camera type. EX: .crw (Canon)<\/td>\n<td class=\"style4\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#CCFFFF\">Lossless<br \/>\nRetains full gamut before formatting<\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFCC99\">Storage in camera NOT FOR WEB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">GIMP <span class=\"style3\">Gnu Image Manipulation Program\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span class=\"style3\">4<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style4\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\">(any)<\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">Working format (original format for <span style=\"color: #800000;\">GIMP<\/span>)<br \/>\n<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><strong>.xcf<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#CCFFFF\"><span class=\"style3\">Lossless<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFCC99\"><span class=\"style3\">NOT FOR WEB\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span class=\"style3\">Adobe Photoshop\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span class=\"style3\">4<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style4\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\">(any)<\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">Working format (original format for <span style=\"color: #800000;\">Adobe Photoshop<\/span>)<br \/>\n<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><strong>.psd<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#CCFFFF\"><span class=\"style3\">Lossless<br \/>\nNo\u00a0 compression\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFCC99\"><span class=\"style3\">NOT FOR WEB\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u00a0Adobe <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/PDF\"><span class=\"style3\">Portable Document Format\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><\/td>\n<td class=\"style4\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\">N\/A<\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">\u00a0File exchange. format\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><b>.pdf\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#CCFFFF\">Lossless, can be compressed<\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#66FFCC\">OK for WEB Flat text, graphics,\u00a0 interactive elements,\u00a0 <a class=\"mw-redirect\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rich_media\">rich media<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/GIF\"><span class=\"style3\">Graphic<br \/>\nImage<br \/>\nFormat<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span class=\"style3\">1\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><strong>Indexed, greyscale\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">8 bit, only 256 total colors but pallets vary<br \/>\n<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><strong>.gif<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#CCFFFF\">Lossless,\u00a0 good for\u00a0 transparency, animation<\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#66FFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">FOR WEB &#8211; Simple colors, maps &amp;\u00a0 cartoons\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span class=\"style3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/JPEG\">Joint<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/JPEG\">Photographic<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/JPEG\">Experts<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/JPEG\">Group\u00a0<\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span class=\"style3\">3<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><b>RGB<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">16 million colors<br \/>\n(no alpha channel\u00a0 transparency)<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><strong>.jpg .jpeg<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#CCFFFF\"><span class=\"style3\">Good compression\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#66FFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">FOR WEB &#8211; Complex photos.\u00a0 Introduced 1992\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Scalable_Vector_Graphics\"><span class=\"style3\">Scalable Vector Graphics\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span class=\"style3\">3<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><b>RGB<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">16 million colors; not for photos<br \/>\n<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><strong>.svg<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#CCFFFF\"><span class=\"style3\">Scalable without aliasing \/ Not bitmapped <\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#66FFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">FOR WEB\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Portable_Network_Graphics\"><span class=\"style3\">Portable<br \/>\nNetwork<br \/>\nGraphics<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span class=\"style3\">4<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><b>RGB<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">16 million colors plus alpha channel (transparencies).\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><strong>.png<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#CCFFFF\"><span class=\"style3\">Better compression than jpg, \u00a0Best for https\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#66FFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">FOR WEB Introduced 1998<br \/>\n<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.adobe.com\/creativecloud\/file-types\/image\/raster\/heic-file.html\"><span class=\"style3\">High Efficiency Image Container\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><strong>RGB\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFCC\">16 million colors, for images and\u00a0 multimedia, audio &amp; video<\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><strong>.heic\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#CCFFFF\">Default for Apple devices<\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#66FFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">\u00a0FOR WEB Introduced 2015\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/WebP\">Webp<\/a><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><\/td>\n<td class=\"style4\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><b>RGB\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFCC\">16 million colors<\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><strong>.webp<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#CCFFFF\">lossy good\u00a0 compression,\u00a0 alpha channel<\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#66FFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">FOR WEB (introduced 2010 by Google)\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span class=\"style3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/TIFF\">Tag Image File Format\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><\/td>\n<td class=\"style4\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><b>Usually CMYK<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">Billions of\u00a0 possible colors\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><strong>.tiff, <\/strong>also\u00a0<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"style3\"><strong>.pict\u00a0 \/ <\/strong>old Apple<br \/>\nformat\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#CCFFFF\"><span class=\"style3\">Some\u00a0 <\/span><span class=\"style3\">compression<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFCCCC\"><span class=\"style3\">FOR PRINTING, ARCHIVING\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span class=\"style3\">Flexible image transport system\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span class=\"style3\">4<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style4\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\">(any)<\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFCC\"><span class=\"style3\">Scientific and archival format\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFDDFF\"><span class=\"style3\"><strong>.fts, .fits<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#CCFFFF\"><span class=\"style3\">Non-lossy; backwards compatible (to 1981). Good photometric notations<\/span><\/td>\n<td class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" bgcolor=\"#FFCC99\"><span class=\"style3\"><span class=\"style3\">Working format for <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/FITS_Liberator\">FITS Liberator<\/a><br \/>\nNOT FOR WEB\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"style2\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" align=\"left\">\u00a0More<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Adobe info on <a href=\"https:\/\/helpx.adobe.com\/photoshop\/using\/color-modes.html\">Color Modes\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Image formats <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Image_file_formats\">(Wikipedia list)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image file formats There are three main types of digital image file formats, classified by their position in the production process: Camera capture formats, such as Camera Raw (non-lossy) or JPG (lossy) Editing formats, like Photoshop&#8217;s\u00a0 .psd or Gimp&#8217;s\u00a0 .xcf &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/image-formats\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-386","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3762,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/386\/revisions\/3762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}