What's a JPEG, GIF, PNG, and PDF?
Are you mystified by words like jpeg, gif, pdf, and others that appear after the last dot in a file, folder, document, or on web page descriptions?
Well, you're not alone. Read on and we'll examine what they mean, what they do, and what they tell us.
Basics of Image Files
Visual images such as photos, pictures, and other non-text displays can be seen on computers, tablets, and smartphones because they are in the form of digital files. These letters (called file extensions) indicate to both you and your computing device how each image is stored and what software will be necessary to open and display the image file. Most computers and mobile devices today have built-in software that will perform these functions. Using the software, your device is able to convert the information contained in a file into what you see on your screen.
Why Use Them?
These types of graphics files are used for two reasons. They are very efficient for use on the Internet because they are smaller than other types of graphic files and they will appear the same way on almost any type of computing device. Smaller files take less time to travel across the Internet, and since there are so many types of computers and computing devices, using a file that allows images to appear the same on different sizes and brands of devices is a big benefit.
So what are the differences among each of these file extensions, and how do you know which one to choose when you need to select one?
What the Abbreviations Mean
The letters are acronyms and, once again, refer to the type of data in the file. Let's take a look at several frequently-used file formats. The first three deal with images, graphics, and other visual files. The fourth one manages text and documents, and electronic images of text and graphics that together are considered to be like a printed document.
gif (pronounced "jiff," like the peanut butter) - stands for Graphics Interchange Format; supports only 256 colors. Creates a very small file size, therefore is faster than jpeg or png, but is more limited. It's used a lot for web pages because it is so fast, but its resolution isn't as good as some other formats and hence is best for images that are just a few colors, black-&-white images, and simple graphics. It works well for animation images.
jpeg (also seen as jpg) - (pronounced "jay-peg") - is an acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group; is capable of supporting sixteen million color variations and was introduced as an answer to the limitations of gif. Like gif, it also compresses well and as a result doesn't require a tremendous amount of space and downloads quickly, but its resolution isn't as good as some other file formats. It is widely used for still images and web page visuals.
png (pronounced "ping") - is short for Portable Network Graphics; doesn't compress as well as the two formats above and hence isn't as fast. But it does have other advantages. It was developed as a patent-free version of gif, and sometimes an alternative to tiff (often used with digital camera pictures). Like gif, it supports a vast array of colors, but it's more powerful than gif and provides considerably better resolution than gif or jpeg. Its use is often preferred by artists because of its resolution and because it handles artwork, photos and the like better than the two above. It is also the best format of these first three for transparency, and therefore is often used for images in web page work.
pdf (pronounced by saying the letters you see, "pea dee eff") - refers to Portable Document Format; it supports files that are mainly comprised of text, as in documents and worded material; it can include graphics but only as part of a single whole that is meant to appear as a printed document. Significantly, pdf software is designed to retain the format of the original text or material, so that what is displayed on your screen from a pdf file looks the same as the layout and design of the original file.
These are just four of the thousands of file types used in computing. While these terms describe the file types, file titles on a computer have two parts, the part before the dot and the part after. Your computer uses the "dot" to tell the difference between the name of the file and the file type like these examples: filename.jpeg, filename.gif, filename.png, filename.pdf. It's OK to refer to a file type with or without the dot.
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