Image file formats are
standardized means of organizing and storing digital images. An image file
format may store data in uncompressed, compressed, or vector formats.
Major graphic file formats
There are hundreds of
image file types. The PNG, JPEG, and GIF formats are most often used to display
images on the Internet.
JPEG
JPEG (Joint
Photographic Experts Group) is a lossy compression method; JPEG is short for
Joint Photographic Experts Group, and is the most popular among the image
formats used on the web.
JPEG2000
JPEG2000 is a standard
for image compression method and file format.
JPEG2000 is an image
coding system that uses state-of-the-art compression techniques based on
wavelet technology.
GIF
GIF (Graphics
Interchange Format) is for common usage limited to an 8-bit palette, or 256
colors (while 24-bit color depth is possible).
It also supports
animations and allows a separate palette of up to 256 colors for each frame.
BMP
The BMP file format (Windows bitmap) handles graphic files within the Microsoft Windows OS.Typically, BMP files are uncompressed, and therefore large and lossless.
PNG is lossless so it does not lose quality and detail after image compression.
PNG can support 24 bit RGB color images, grayscale images, both with and without alpha channels.
