I know there are different photo formats but what do they all mean and how do they effect pictures?
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The biggest difference between the formats is the methods they use to compress images. Jpg & jpeg are actually both abbreviations for the same format, which uses lossy compression. Lossy compression is able to store the image with much less data, but loses some details & makes the image look noisier, but that usually isn’t noticeable unless the image was compressed with really low quality settings. Png uses lossless compression, which is able to still save a lot of space compared to raw image files, but can still be 5-10x larger than a jpg of the same image. Lossless compression, however, doesn’t cause any loss in image quality.
Png also allows a transparency channel, so any pixel can be partially or entirely transparent, where jpg doesn’t support this.
There’s also another mostly unused format, apng, which is essentially a gif with the same lossless compression & transparency as a png, which is a step up from gif’s 8-bit palettes.
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