So, you've just finished working in your favorite image editing program and your
masterpiece is ready for the art gallery, your web design portfolio, or
even 4chan. But when you go to save it, you're presented with this baffling
array of file format options. TIFF, PNG,
BMP, and come on, why does Photoshop think you look like you know what a JPEG
is when all you want is a picture of a god hot dog? Well, to answer Hank Hill's
question, JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. And despite
the fancy sounding name, you don't need to be an expert to use it as it's an
extremely common format in the world of photo storage. JPEGs are popular for a
number of reasons, but one of the biggest is that they save a lot of
storage space compared to older formats like BMP, which used to be widely used
due to its simplicity and compatibility across devices, but has since fallen out
of favor. Now, to achieve these space savings, JPEGs use what's called lossy
compression. So, when you save an image as a JPEG, some of that image data
actually gets discarded to reduce the file size. Now, the way that it does
this is it compares every 8 by8 block of pixels that make up the image to 64
standard patterns, then determines how much weight each of those 64 patterns
contributes to that block. Afterwards, the higher frequency or more
checkerboard like patterns you see to the lower right have their respective
weights lowered by an amount that depends on the JPEG quality setting as
your eyes aren't really all that good at seeing lots of brightness differences
over a small area. This means that often times these higher frequency patterns
end up contributing nothing to the compressed image, which is the main way
JPEG compression can reduce photos down to just around 10% of their uncompressed
file size with very little loss in perceptible quality. But there's a
catch. JPEG compression works best with photos because the detail in the photo
tends to hide compression artifacts. JPEG struggles with sharp edges and
curves you often find in non-photographic images such as diagrams
or design elements on web pages. For these, a much better format is the
graphics interchange format, commonly known as a GIF or GIF. Well, however you
pronounce it, GIFs use lossless compression, making them ideal for
simpler images like corporate logos because you won't end up with any of
those nasty artifacts that are easier to see in a clean, simple design. Gifts can
also, very notably, even be animated by
showing multiple images in rapid succession. But their huge drawback is
that they're only limited to 256 colors,
meaning they often appear grainy when used for more complex images. So then if
you want no loss in image quality without the huge file sizes, what do you
do? Well, this is where you might turn to the increasingly popular PNG format,
which stands for portable network graphics. Now, as the name suggests, it
was designed to be useful for sending images over the internet. Now, PNGs can
reduce the file sizes of graphics heavy images without introducing compression
artifacts the way JPEG and GIF can.
Though, the lossless compression means your file sizes will be larger. So, keep
this trade-off in mind. But it's not all about image quality versus file size.
PNG also supports transparency, meaning
image editors and web browsers can understand that certain areas of the
image are meant to be transparent, allowing more flexibility in how the
image is used. Of course, there are times when image quality is of paramount
importance, and you're not as concerned about file sizes, such as in
professional photography settings where TIFF is a popular format. Now, although
TIFF can use compression, it also supports uncompressed images as well as
many different color spaces and other options, making it popular among
photographers and printers. It's also increasingly common to run across images
into scalable vector graphics or SVG format, which can be resized as much as
you like with no loss in quality, meaning file sizes are usually very
small. And you can learn much more about vector graphics right up here. And
there's actually one important format that isn't really a format at all. RAW
images, which are also sometimes referred to as digital negatives. Now,
just like a negative from an old 35mm film camera, a raw file isn't an actual
picture, but it contains the information needed to create one. So, it's a very
lightly processed file that contains as much of the original information
captured by the camera sensor itself as possible. Raw files typically require
special codecs to open them on a desktop image editor. But raw images are favored
by photographers because having all of that original data opens up so many more
editing options such as more granular control over brightness and colors than
would otherwise be possible. Now, some raw formats, and they are not all the
same, even allow things like white balance or overexposure to be corrected
after the fact. Whoa. Then after editing, raw images can just be saved as
whatever format makes the most sense. So, I hope this video has made it a bit
clearer why there are so many different formats for something that seems as
simple as displaying images. And if it has, let us know if you'd like to see
future episodes that explain other kinds of file formats for things like audio
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