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For example, when you’re taking a screenshot of a user interface where different interface elements strongly transition between dark and light backgrounds, it’s much better to use PNGs. PNGs do a great job when you have an image with rapid transitions between colors that need to remain sharp. This is a screenshot of the WordPress dashboard. Otherwise, your image is going to be ‘heavier’ than the same image saved as a JPEG. They also support millions of colors, although you’re much better off using PNGs for images that contain less color data.
Best image format for web applications portable#
Portable Network Graphics (PNGs) are just as popular as JPEGs on websites. We’ll cover this more when talking PNGs in the next section: 2. On the other hand, JPEGs are not perfect for images with very few color data, like interface screenshots and other simple computer-generated graphics. The quality drops aren’t often noticeable unless you’re looking very closely. Though, this all depends on the level of compression that’s selected for the image. Here’s a quick example:Īlthough JPEGs hold up well when compressed, you can usually notice a small drop in quality after optimizing images. In general, JPEG is an excellent option for displaying complex photographs that include a lot of colors. The main benefits of this format are that it can display millions of colors, and it’s particularly well-suited to high compression levels. The term JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, and it was coined in 1986. The three options we’re going to introduce below are some of the most popular and useful formats, which makes them perfect picks for almost any website. The 3 primary image formats used on the web: JPEG vs PNG vs GIFĪs we mentioned earlier, there are some image formats that are used much more commonly online than others. The formats you choose should ideally provide a nice balance between quality and performance. In most cases, you’ll want to stick to using one or two image formats throughout your website, to maintain a consistent standard. This affects your site’s ability to look good on both large and small screens. How much leeway you have depends on the image format you use. When you stretch or shrink an image too much, its quality will suffer. As you might imagine, some image formats include more detail and are higher-quality than others. Some image formats take up more space than others, which can affect your site’s loading times. The types of images you use affect your site’s: For now, let’s break down why the format(s) you use on your website matter in a more general sense. We’ll talk about what makes each of these image types unique in a moment. However, when it comes to the web, most people stick to a handful of standbys, including JPEGs, PNGs, and GIFs. As we’ve mentioned, there are dozens of image formats to choose from.