IMAGE FILE FORMATS

DIFFERENT OF PICTURE TYPES

• IMAGE FILE FORMATS ARE STANDARDIZED MEANS OF
ORGANIZING AND STORING DIGITAL IMAGES. IMAGE FILES ARE
COMPOSED OF DIGITAL DATA IN ONE OF THESE FORMATS THAT
CAN BE RASTERIZED- PIXELATED- FOR USE ON A COMPUTER
DISPLAY OR PRINTER.AN IMAGE FILE FORMAT MAY STORE DATA
IN UNCOMPRESSED COMPRESSED, OR VECTOR FORMATS. ONCE
RASTERIZED, AN IMAGE BECOMES A GRID OF PIXELS, EACH OF
WHICH HAS A NUMBER OF BITS TO DESIGNATE ITS COLOR EQUAL
TO THE COLOR DEPTH OF THE DEVICE DISPLAYING IT .
THE DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF IMAGE FORMAT , ARE
CONTROLING ON :

• 1 IMAGE FILE SIZES

• 2 IMAGE FILE COMPRESSION
• 3 MAJOR GRAPHIC FILE FORMATS
 1 IMAGE FILE SIZES :

• GENERALLY SPEAKING, IN RASTER IMAGES, IMAGE FILE SIZE IS POSITIVELY

CORRELATED TO THE NUMBER OF PIXELS IN AN IMAGE AND THE COLOR
DEPTH, OR BITS PER PIXEL, OF THE IMAGE. IMAGES CAN BE COMPRESSED
VARIOUS WAYS,. . FOR EXAMPLE, GRAPHICALLY SIMPLE IMAGES
IMAGES WITH LARGE CONTINUOUS REGIONS LIKE LINE ART OR ANIMATION
SEQUENCES) MAY BE LOSSLESSLY COMPRESSED INTO A GIF PNG
FORMAT AND RESULT IN A SMALLER FILE SIZE THAN A LOSSY JPEG FORMAT.

• VECTOR IMAGES UNLIKE RASTER IMAGES, CAN BE ANY DIMENSION

INDEPENDENT OF FILE SIZE. FILE SIZE INCREASES ONLY WITH THE ADDITION OF
MORE VECTORS.
2 IMAGE FILE COMPRESSION :
• THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF IMAGE FILE COMPRESSION ALGORITHMS : LOSSLESS
AND LOSSY

• LOSSLESS COMPRESSION : ALGORITHMS REDUCE FILE SIZE WHILE PRESERVING A

PERFECT COPY OF THE ORIGINAL UNCOMPRESSED IMAGE. LOSSLESS
COMPRESSION GENERALLY, BUT NOT ALWAYS, RESULTS IN LARGER FILES THAN
LOSSY COMPRESSION. LOSSLESS COMPRESSION SHOULD BE USED TO AVOID
ACCUMULATING STAGES OF RE-COMPRESSION WHEN EDITING IMAGES.

• LOSSY COMPRESSION : ALGORITHMS PRESERVE A REPRESENTATION OF THE

ORIGINAL UNCOMPRESSED IMAGE THAT MAY APPEAR TO BE A PERFECT COPY,
BUT IT IS NOT A PERFECT COPY. OFTEN LOSSY COMPRESSION
LOSSLESS COMPRESSION LOSSY COMPRESSION
3 MAJOR GRAPHIC FILE FORMATS :
• INCLUDING PROPRIETARY TYPES, THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF IMAGE FILE TYPES. THE
PNG, JPEG, AND GIF FORMATS ARE MOST OFTEN USED TO DISPLAY IMAGES
ON THE INTERNET. THESE GRAPHIC FORMATS ARE LISTED AND BRIEFLY DESCRIBED
BELOW, SEPARATED INTO THE TWO MAIN FAMILIES OF GRAPHICS : RASTER AND
VECTOR .

• IN ADDITION TO STRAIGHT IMAGE FORMATS, METAFILE FORMATS ARE PORTABLE

FORMATS WHICH CAN INCLUDE BOTH RASTER AND VECTOR INFORMATION.
EXAMPLES ARE APPLICATION-INDEPENDENT FORMATS SUCH AS WMF AND EMF.
THE METAFILE FORMAT IS AN INTERMEDIATE FORMAT .... MOST WINDOWS
APPLICATIONS OPEN METAFILES AND THEN SAVE THEM IN THEIR OWN NATIVE
FORMAT. PAGE DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE REFERS TO FORMATS USED TO DESCRIBE
THE LAYOUT OF A PRINTED PAGE CONTAINING TEXT, OBJECTS AND IMAGES.
EXAMPLES ARE POSTSCRIPT, PDF AND PCL.
1- RASTER FORMATS :
• JPEG/JFIF :
• JPEG 2000 : EXIF :
• TIFF :
• PSD :
• RAW :
• GIF :
• BMP :
• PNG :
• PPM, PGM, PBM, PNM AND
PFM :
• PAM :
• WEBP :
 DESCRIPTION :
• JPEG/JFIF : (JOINT PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPERTS GROUP) OR JPG IS A LOSSY COMPRESSION METHOD ..
JPEG-COMPRESSED IMAGES ARE USUALLY STORED IN THE JFIF (JPEG FILE INTERCHANGE FORMAT ) FILE
FORMAT .. EVERY DIGITAL CAMERA CAN SAVE IMAGES IN THE JPEG/JFIF FORMAT, WHICH SUPPORTS 8-BIT
GRAYSCALE IMAGES AND 24-BIT RGB COLOR IMAGES MOOD (8 BITS EACH FOR RED, GREEN, AND BLUE)
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• JPEG 2000 : THIS IS A COMPRESSION STANDARD ENABLING BOTH LOSSLESS AND LOSSY STORAGE .. & IT IS
USED CURRENTLY IN PROFESSIONAL MOVIE EDITING AND DISTRIBUTION (SOME DIGITAL CINEMAS, FOR
EXAMPLE, USE JPEG 2000 FOR INDIVIDUALC OR SINGLE MOVIE FRAMES) .
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• EXIF : THE EXIF (EXCHANGEABLE IMAGE FILE FORMAT) FORMAT IS A FILE STANDARD SIMILAR TO THE JFIF
FORMAT WITH TIFF EXTENSIONS ... IT IS INCORPORATED IN THE JPEG-WRITING SOFTWARE USED IN MOST
CAMERAS. ITS PURPOSE IS TO RECORD AND TO STANDARDIZE THE EXCHANGE OF IMAGES WITH IMAGE
METADATA BETWEEN DIGITAL CAMERAS AND EDITING AND VIEWING SOFTWARE. THE METADATA ARE
RECORDED FOR INDIVIDUAL IMAGES AND INCLUDE SUCH THINGS AS CAMERA SETTINGS, TIME AND DATE,
SHUTTER SPEED, EXPOSURE, IMAGE SIZE, COMPRESSION, NAME OF CAMERA, COLOR INFORMATION. WHEN
IMAGES ARE VIEWED OR EDITED BY IMAGE EDITING SOFTWARE, ALL OF THIS IMAGE INFORMATION CAN BE
DISPLAYED.
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• PSD : SPECIAL ADOBE PHOTOSHOP IMAGE FORMAT : ( PHOTO SHOP DEFAULT ) .. PSD FILE IS A A HEAVY
LAYERED IMAGE FILE USED IN ADOBE PHOTOSHOP , WHICH STANDS FOR PHOTOSHOP DOCUMENT , IS THE
DEFAULT FORMAT THAT PHOTOSHOP USES FOR SAVING DATA ,, PSD IS AN EDITABLE FILE THAT ALLOWS THE
USER TO WORK WITH THE IMAGES , INDIVIDUAL LAYERS EVEN AFTER THE FILE HAS BEEN SAVED ON PC .
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• TIFF : THE TIFF ( TAGGED IMAGE FILE FORMAT ) FORMAT IS A FLEXIBLE FORMAT THAT NORMALLY SAVES 8
BITS OR 16 BITS PER RGB COLOR (RED, GREEN, BLUE) ... RESPECTIVELY, USUALLY USING EITHER THE TIFF OR
TIF FILENAME EXTENSION. TIFF'S FLEXIBILITY CAN BE BOTH AN ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE, SINCE A
READER THAT READS EVERY TYPE OF TIFF FILE DOES NOT EXIST ... TIFFS CAN BE LOSSY AND LOSSLESS SOME
OFFER RELATIVELY GOOD LOSSLESS COMPRESSION FOR DBI-LEVEL (BLACK & WHITE) IMAGES. SOME DIGITAL
CAMERAS CAN SAVE IN TIFF FORMAT ... TIFF IMAGE FORMAT IS NOT WIDELY SUPPORTED BY WEB BROWSERS.
TIFF REMAINS WIDELY ACCEPTED AS A PHOTOGRAPH FILE STANDARD IN THE PRINTING BUSINESS. TIFF CAN
HANDLE DEVICE-SPECIFIC COLOR SPACES, SUCH AS THE CMYK DEFINED BY A PARTICULAR SET OF PRINTING
PRESS INKS. OCR (OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION) SOFTWARE PACKAGES COMMONLY GENERATE
SOME (OFTEN MONO COLOR) FORM OF TIFF IMAGE FOR SCANNED TEXT PAGES.

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