I know there are some formats that are for raw files, but most others are compressed. Why are there so many of those?
In: Technology
NB: lossless and lossy are terms used to describe the method the raw information is compressed. Some formats, like JPEG, actually damages the images…so you lose things like transparency, and get jagged edges on your lines
From a photo perspective, raw files are determined by the camera manufacturer. Mostly because each camera company has their own way of processing image data. Keep in mind that raw files are actually just raw data tables that another program has to turn into an image. Camera companies used to saddle their devices with their own software, but now with Adobe being the industry standard, companies often just develop plugins than can be installed to make it easier to process the Data.
Other formats like PNG (Portable Network Graphics) are used in graphics because it is lossless, meaning, each time it’s used/opened the information isn’t affected.
So it comes in handy when working with graphics and/illustrations. It’s not great for photos since it’s colour profile is strictly RGB (red green blue) which makes it great for screens but not good enough for print; which is why TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is used.
TIFF is a lossless format that has some compression but without degradation and this is the format most print and photographers work with since the colours can be worked in both RGB (screen stuff) or CMYK (printing and paper stuff).
After work is done all images and digital anything are often exported to JPEG which is a lossy format…since it’s designed to be on the web the compression puts more emphasis on size instead of quality. So to get the best JPEG you have to start with the best possible version of everything else.
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