Humor & Jokes

When using images on your website you need to make a careful choice of the format of image that you use. The most common image formats used for websites are GIF, JPEG and PNG. All these images have their advantages and disadvantages, it’s all about knowing which format to use at which place.

First of all we need to understand why need to use a specific format of image. Why can’t we pick any good looking image and add it to the website. The reason for that is images add lots of weight to your website and if you keep adding images the site will get very heavy and load slowly. There has to be a balance between the good looks of an image and its size. To counter this, we need to use different formats.

JPEG:It is a tool that packages / compresses images in a digital format. It omits the unnecessary information that an image carries, as result every time the image is saved as JPEG the quality keep reducing as it leaves out more & more image info. However, in spite of this limitation JPEP is a very useful image format especially for photographic images (where it is most commonly used). It is not a ideal format for color & texture preservation, therefore, not recommended for logos & text.

GIF:The purpose behind invention of GIF was to add graphics to the websites during the times of ridiculously slow internet speeds and limitations of graphic colors to mere 256. It is basically a single color transparency format that adds character to the image. It is fondly known as the on & off transparency format. The biggest advantage for GIF is that it is very light and work wonders with sharp lined images.

It is the best format for images that carry sharp lines and solid colors and the ones that need a transparent background. Remember, GIF is only a screen oriented format and should never be used for print purposes as the results will be disastrous.

PNG:It is, by some distance, the most flexible web images format; maybe because of the fact that it was designed specifically for this medium. It has seamless transparency and even provisions like gamma corrections.  The hassle with PNG is that its files are always heavier to its counterparts. It is ideally suited for images to be blended with backgrounds and high resolution versions for print. So now you know the pros and cons of these image formats, choose carefully and you will have a visually stunning and fast loading website.