EXPERIENCING ICT
Unit 1: Introduction to Multimedia
Digital Arts 1
Lesson 5
Graphic File Formats
When all the important elements such as text, images, sounds, videos, and animation are combined
as one, multimedia is created. A multimedia presentation may be informative and good to watch but
in creating it, one should look into certain considerations especially when dealing with images and
video files.
Just like other application programs, one important consideration in developing an output from the
raw files at hand is the file format used to save the images and videos. The choice of file formats
when developing a presentation is crucial because it should be supported by the application program
to be used to ensure that it will run without any problem. Another issue on graphic formats is the file
size. Most of the multimedia created are uploaded on the Internet or integrated in media productions,
thus, requiring smaller file sizes of images used. This is due to the bandwidth issues surrounding
the network delivery. Compressed images with small file sizes are best displayed on the web and
can also be easily downloaded.
Below are some of the common graphic file formats used for multimedia and their characteristics.
.GIF
The Graphic Interchange Format (.gif) was popularized by the CompuServe Information Service
in the 1980s. This graphic file uses an 8-bit (index color with 256 or fewer color) color palette which
can be supported by most of the web browsers today. .GIF format is mostly used for saving graphic
arts, line arts, and screenshots that may require lesser detail but more of the solid color. Images
are usually saved using a transparent background. The .gif format is also used for saving animated
images. Single images are combined using a third party software to come up with an animated GIF
file. The animation may be simple but can already be used in some multimedia applications and
pages on the Internet.
.JPG/.JPEG
Another file format used for multimedia and the web is the Joint Photographic Experts Group or
the .jpeg files. This uses a 24-bit (true color) image in full color. The .jpeg format is tremendously
popular and patronized by photographers, web designers, medical specialists, and artists because
of its image quality and fidelity in colors. The file is small in size and can easily be stored in memory
storage devices. .JPEG files uses the lossy compression that it loses some detail of the image, but
is not allowed to retrieve the losses anymore.
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EXPERIENCING ICT
Lesson 5 Graphic File Formats
Digital Arts 1
Captured images using the digital camera use the .jpeg format. Considering the small file size, users
can save a number of images in the memory cards of the camera, but may have a loss in the quality
of the pictures. Using the digital camera settings, the users are also allowed to have a higher picture
quality, but in relation to this, is a large file size that would easily fill up the spaces in the storage.
.JPEG files are good for photographic images as well as images for uploading on the Internet and
sending through email. Its file size makes it capable of transferring, opening, and saving image
formats around the Internet in a faster way.
.PNG
Portable Network Graphic (PNG, pronounced “Ping”) is an image format developed by a consortium
of graphic software developers as a non-proprietary alternative to the GIF image format. Like the .gif
format, the .png file supports a full range of colors, image transparency, and automatic corrections for
display monitor gamma. An added feature to this format is the capability of embedding text description
to the image, which search engines could locate for easy reference.
.BMP
This format is sometimes called the bitmap or the DIB file format (for Device-independent Bitmap),
which stores images arranged in an array of mapped bits. The bitmap file can either be compressed
or uncompressed data.
.TIFF
Tagged Image File Format (abbreviated as .TIFF) is a file format for storing images such as
photographs and line art. The file was originally created for desktop publishing and page layout
applications. .TIFF files are generally large but are very important especially when archiving or
documenting images and documents.
The table below was summarized by Wayne Fulton in his article, “A Few Scanning Tips,” in 2008
showing the different graphic file formats that can be used in creating multimedia.
Graphic File Format Color Data Mode Bits Per Pixel
RGB Grayscale 24 or 48 bits, 8 or 16
.TIFF Indexed color Line Art bits, 1 to 8 bits, 1 bit
(bilevel)
RGB Grayscale 24 or 48 bits, 8 or 16
.PNG Indexed color Line Art bits, 1 to 8 bits, 1 bit
(bilevel)
.JPG RGB Grayscale 24 bits, 8 bits
.GIF Indexed Color 1 to 8 bits
http://www.scantips.com/basics09.html
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EXPERIENCING ICT
Unit 1: Introduction to Multimedia
Digital Arts 1
Properties of Photographic Images
Graphics, including Logos or
Properties Photographic Images
Line art
Continuous tones, 24-bit color or Solid colors, up to 256 colors, with
8- bit Gray, no text, few lines and text or lines and sharp edges
Default edges
TIFF or PNG (no JPG artifacts) 24 or 48 bits, 8 or 16 bits, 1 to 8
Best Quality for Archived bits, 1 bit
Master
JPG with a higher quality factor can TIFF LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch,
be decent (JPG is a questionable most effective when compressing
quality for archiving master copies) solid indexed colors (graphics)),
Smallest File Size or GIF or PNG (graphics/logos
usually permit reducing to 2 to 16
colors for smallest file size)
Indexed color TIFF without LZW or GIF JPG
Maximum Compatibility compression adds artifacts,
(PC, Mac, Unix) smears text, lines, and edges.
256 color GIF has very limited JPG compression adds artifacts,
color, and is a larger file than 24 smears text, lines, and edges.
Worst Choice
bit JPG
http://www.scantips.com/basics09.html. Copyright © 1997-2008 by Wayne Fulton
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