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Differences between JPG, PNG, PSD, GIF, TIF, BMP

Sep 16, 2021

People who often travel in the computer world must have a deep sense of pictures. What needs to be admitted is that pictures are always more visually exciting than words. There are several different formats for pictures: JPG, PNG, PSD, GIF, TIF, BMP, etc. What is the difference between these different formats? The differences are summarized below for you.

JPG

The complete form of the JPG format is JPEG (Joint Photo Graphic Experts Group), sometimes referred to as the JPE format. The JPG format is the most commonly used file format. In Photoshop, the default image format in the "save as" command is JPEG. In addition, most of the photos taken by mobile phone cameras are also in JPG format. A major feature of the JPG format is that it supports the ability to increase or decrease the level of file compression, but this compression comes at the expense of image quality, and excessive compression will reduce the quality of the image. Because the JPG format retains color information well, it is particularly suitable for use on the Internet. Its small size can reduce image transmission and loading time. The JPG format is mainly used for non-transparent pictures with large sizes. Pros: The picture uses direct colors, rich in colors, and can achieve a gradual color effect. Cons: Lossy compression can cause blurry pictures.

PNG

PNG (Portable Network Graphic) is also a common picture format. Its most important feature is to support the alpha transparency channel, that is, the generated image supports a transparent background. If we use JPG format, the picture background will be saved as white by default. Generally speaking, the losslessly compressed images in PNG format are too large and not suitable for daily dissemination. They are mainly used for small-sized transparent logos, icons, etc. Pros: Support transparent channel. Cons: The file size is too large.

PSD

The PSD (Photoshop Document) format is the default dedicated storage format for Photoshop. It is suitable for storing source documents and working files, and it is more convenient to modify. Its meaning is the only format that can support all image color modes. The biggest feature of the PSD format is that it can retain PS processing information such as transparency, layer, path, channel, etc., but it requires professional graphics processing software to open it. Generally speaking, the PSD format is rarely supported by other software and tools. After the image is produced, it usually needs to be converted into some more common formats, such as JPG, PNG, etc. Of course, the disadvantage of the PSD format is that it is bulky and takes up storage space. Pros: Retain PS processing information. Cons: The file is large and specific.

GIF

Speaking of GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), you must be familiar with it. Our most common GIF format is GIF animation. It is a compressed picture format, divided into dynamic GIF and static GIF. The biggest feature of the GIF format is that it supports dynamic pictures and supports transparent backgrounds. Most animated pictures and emoticons on the Internet are in GIF format. Compared with animation, GIF dynamic pictures take up less storage space, load quickly, and are easy to spread, so they are very popular. Pros: Lossless picture and small size. Cons: The GIF format only supports 8bit indexed colors, that is, in the entire picture, there can only be 256 different colors.

TIF

TIF format is also known as (Tagged Image File Format). Non-professionals may be relatively unfamiliar with this format. It can support different color modes, paths, transparency, and channels, and is the most commonly used format in printed documents. Photoshop supports saving layers and other information in TIFF files, which is similar to PSD format files in many respects. Pros: The original clear and uncompressed pictures can be kept, and the layers can be saved. Cons: Takes up a lot of space.

BMP

The BMP (Bitmap) format is a standard image file format in the Windows operating system and can be supported by a variety of Windows applications. The image information contained in the BMP format is richer and hardly compressed. But this leads to a large storage space occupied by it, so BMP is currently more popular on a single machine.
Pros: BMP supports 1-bit to 24-bit color depth. The BMP format is widely compatible with existing Windows programs (especially older programs). Cons: BMP does not support compression, and the file size is very large. At present, there are dozens of image formats, and only the more commonly used ones are introduced in this article. There are other image formats, such as ICON, PCX, WEBP, etc. I won't repeat them here. There are too many pictures, how do I find the picture I want? It is recommended that you use Wise JetSearch ---local file search tool. It can help you quickly find different types of pictures or other local files. The preservation of pictures is also extremely important. If you accidentally delete or lose important pictures, you should try to use the professional data recovery tool Wise Data Recovery to retrieve them.
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