Difference Between Bitmap, JPEG, and GIF Files

What is the Difference Between Bitmap, JPEG, and GIF Files ?

BMP - Bitmap. This was probably the first type of digital image format that I can remember. Every picture on a computer seemed to be a BMP. In Windows XP the Paint program saves its images automatically in BMP, however now in Windows Vista images are saved to JPEG. BMP is the basis platform for many other file types.


JPG, JPEG - (Joint Photographic Experts Group) Jpeg format is used for colour photographs, or any pictures with many blends or gradients. It is not good with sharp edges and tends to blur them a bit. This format became popular with the invention of the digital camera. Most, if not all, digital cameras download photos to your computer as a Jpeg file. Obviously the digital camera manufacturers see the value in high quality images that ultimately take up less space.


GIF- (Graphics Interchange Format) Gif format is best used for text, line drawings, screenshots, cartoons, and animations. Gif is limited to a total number of 256 colours or less. It is commonly used for fast loading web pages. It also makes a great banner or logo for your webpage. Animated pictures are also saved in GIF format. For example, a flashing banner would be saved as a Gif file.

BMP - Bitmap. This was probably the first type of digital image format. It's most common in Windows environments. This is generally medium-high quality but produces larger file sizes. This format is ideal for icons and small images.

JPG, JPEG. Became popular with the invention of the digital camera. High quality images and huge compression allows for big resolutions but small file sizes. This is the most common image format, especially for photos.

GIF. This format was created mainly for Internet uses, mainly for its small file size. It's good for fast-loading web pages only.

All images that come from a scanner or digital camera are bitmap files. A bitmap file is one that is made up of pixels in a grid. It is a resolution dependent image, so itR very difficult to increase the size of a bitmap graphic without a noticeable decrease in quality. When you try to make a bitmap image larger through an image editing software program such as Microsoft Paint or Adobe Photoshop, the computer uses a process called interpolation to Uuess?what the additional pixels must look like. This may not be noticeable on your computer monitor, but printing the resized graphic almost always results in a blurry and distorted image.

Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) or JPG files are a type of compressed bitmap file. This lossy compression technique reduces the size of an image by discarding details that are typically too insignificant for the human eye to detect. Since the JPEG file format supports 16 million colors, it does a very good job of analyzing what data is the most important to a particular image. The JPEG file format is well suited to digital photography, but doesnR work well for saving line drawings or clip art images that have little available data to compress.

A Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) file is another type of compressed bitmap file. Unlike JPEG images, GIF files are saved using a lossless compression technique. This format works well for line drawings, black and white graphics, or simple text-based images. GIF files also allow transparency and animation, making them quite popular among web designers seeking to create unique effects for their sites. The GIF format is not well suited for photos, however, since the GIF format only supports 256 colors.

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