JPG vs. GIF vs. PNG
The abbreviation for Joint Photographic Experts Group is JPG, which comes from the committee that wrote the standard (JPG). JPG is a format available to open up images and for other many uses. JPG is a method which is designed to compress color and grayscale photos or images. The information discarted in the compress is the information that we can't see. JPG offers 16 million of colors which are the most appropiate for images and graphics. The user must compromise on the image's quality or the file's size. But JPG isn't a very good choice for line drawings and simple graphics, since it might lose its clarity and sharpeness.
Graphics Interchange Format is abbreviated as GIF. It is also another format for images, although it is weaker than JPG since it only has 256 colors and is a lossless compression method. Instead, it is a much better format for graphics (simple ones) line drawings, black & white images and text since it doesn't have a lot of pixels. You can give animation to GIF images with an animation editor. You can also give tranparency to an image so the background is visible, for example. The compression algorithm belongs to Unisys, so if anyone uses it you must be allowed by them.
PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics. PNG was developed as an improvement of GIF method and also as a rivalry, in some way. An image in a lossless PNG can be bewteen a 5% and a 25% more compressed than a GIF file of the exact same image. PNG offers the transparency option, instead a GIF allows you to control the opacity, or the level of transparency. By saving, reparing and re-saving a PNG, the quality won't be lose. But it doesn't support animation.
By: Marina Orruela.
