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Image Formats and Web Design 2: Compare Image Format Settings

While the first page of this guide gives a good general understanding, this page gives a more in depth comparison of the different formats, especially image size depending on different settings. These images were saved using the GIMP, thus all settings are relavent within the GIMP.

Below is the base image used for this page, it offers a good mix of images (the Donutey logo, and JPEG flower) and graphics to show the strengths and weaknesses of the various formats. Download the image to see the uncompressed tif 1024x768 image.
Base Image Format Test Image

BMP

The .bmp or .dib is a bitmapped image format used by the Microsoft Windows platform. Other than internal operating system use, BMP is used as the default image format for Microsoft Paint. It is not used in image editing software or on websites, and will probably not open correctly if you are not using Microsoft Windows.

View Image - 2305KB, 24-Bit BMP Image, 1024x768

GIF

View Image - 209KB, Interlaced, Indexed, GIF, 1024x768
View Image - 200KB, Non-interlaced, Indexed, GIF, 1024x768
View Image - 184KB, Greyscale, Non-indexed, Non-interlaced, GIF, 1024x768
View Image - 190KB, Greyscale, Non-indexed, Interlaced, GIF, 1024x768

JPEG

View Image - 440KB, Quality 100%, JPEG, 1024x768
View Image - 216KB, Quality 90%, JPEG, 1024x768
View Image - 116KB, Quality 60%, JPEG, 1024x768
View Image - 92KB, Quality 40%, JPEG, 1024x768
View Image - 41KB, Quality 10%, JPEG, 1024x768

PNG

View Image - 348KB, Interlacing (Adam7), Compression 9, Save Background Color, Save Gamma, PNG, 1024x768
View Image - 348KB, Interlacing (Adam7), Compression 9, PNG, 1024x768
View Image - 275KB, Compression 9, PNG, 1024x768
View Image - 276KB, Compression 8, PNG, 1024x768
View Image - 2309KB, Compression 0, PNG, 1024x768

TIFF

The Tagged Image File Format is widely used in image editing software as a versatile image format with many uses. However, it is not used in web design, and the images may or may not open correctly in your browser.

View Image - 2305KB, No compression, TIFF, 1024x768
View Image - 395KB, LZW compression, TIFF, 1024x768
View Image - 773KB, Pack Bits, TIFF, 1024x768
View Image - 298KB, Deflate, TIFF, 1024x768
View Image - 409KB, JPEG Setting, TIFF, 1024x768

XCF

The XCF is the GIMP's internal file format for images, it's lossless and saves an images layers etc., however, it does not save an edit history.

Download Image - 793KB, XCF, 1024x768

Kevin C. December 11th 2006 kcas88@gmail.com

<Back to Image Formats and Web Design

『The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...'』 - Isaac Asimov