I know there are different photo formats but what do they all mean and how do they effect pictures?
In: Other
**PNG:** A PNG is what’s called a “lossless,” compression format. It looks for repeated data and simplifies it to save space. A simplified example would be: **RED, RED, RED, RED, BLUE** -> becomes -> **REDx4, BLUE**. The data you put in will always be the exact data that comes out but the file sizes will be larger than JPG/JPEG for reasons I list below, mainly because *exact* colors don’t tend to repeat too frequently outside of graphic design, meaning they can’t compress as much.
**JPG/JPEG:** First off, JPG & JPEG are interchangeable and the same thing. They’re what’s called a “lossy,” compression format. Basically they try to throw away data that you won’t notice in order to save space EX: All the pixels in the blue sky are *close* to the same color, so instead of remembering **light blue, slightly lighter blue, slightly darker blue, blue, light blue, etc.** it just remembers **blue** for all of them and then runs a similar process to a PNG to compress it down further. This means the data you put in won’t be the same you get out, so you have to be careful since if you save a JPG, then edit and save it again, you have just compressed it twice and will start to lose a LOT of quality.
If working in a production environment (video/photo editing, graphic design, etc.) it’s best to keep your files in a **lossless** format until the very end, or you risk the quality degrading with every step. If you’re final product is meant to be re-used (for example a logo or a video-intro meant to be re-edited into a larger work) *always* deliver the final product in a lossless format.
Latest Answers