Web Image File Types
What type of image should I use online, JPG, GIF, or PNG? Simple question, but the obvious reply is another question. How are you going to use the image? One of my favorite quotations is Horatio Greenough’s “form follows function”. The function of an image should control the image’s file type. A few things to consider:
- Is it a large image?
- Is it a photograph, logo, line drawing, or simple graphic?
- Are there file size requirements?
- What color profile is required?
- Do you need to match image colors with any other object on the site?
- Are there subtle gradations of color?
- Are there large blocks of a single solid color
- Is transparency required?
Once these questions are answered, the file type required is much easier to determine. Some tasks can be accomplished by all three common web image file types, others by only one or two. The need for subtle color transitions for instance would rule out GIFs, while the need for transparency would rule out JPG. If you need both of those things together, a PNG file is the only real option. Look at the function required, and use that to control the file type choice.
JPG files are the best web solution for photographs, images with subtle variations of color, and images with large blocks of a single solid color. They also compress well, allowing for larger images to still have reasonable load times. They do not however, allow for transparency. This format also uses lossy compression, which means compression of the file causes loss of detail. The more compression, the more loss.
GIF files are very good for logos, allow transparency, and use a non-lossy form of compression. They also allow for animation of images. The downside of this is that they only allow for 256 colors, so color matching can be awkward. Due to the color limitations, GIFs also do not reflect subtle gradations of color well.
PNG files are a nice compromise between the two. They allow transparency, and can use up to 24-bit color. This allows them to use both the subtle color range of of the JPG, and the transparency of the GIF. In practice, I’ve actually had more luck with using PNGs for transparency than GIFs. Just as PNGs are better at subtle color gradations than GIFs, they also seem to be better at subtle gradations of transparency.
The key here is to look at the purpose of the image. File type follows function.