Image file formats – JPEG, PNG, SVG, PDF

1. Raster formats
2. Vector formats

Initially, all these abbreviations are difficult to understand, but after reading this article everything will fall into place.

First of all, you need to understand what is a raster and vector graphics. This is what we have already mentioned before here.

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Raster formats

Raster image formats JPG and PNG occur most frequently.

JPEG

It is the most common and recognizable format. In short, it allows you to store images of sufficient quality, while taking up minimal space. This is important, primarily for Internet.

The unicity of this format is controlled loss of quality during compression. It’s very simple: you choose how much to reduce the image quality and thus define the size of the future file. The worse the quality, the smaller the size. This characteristic saves a tremendous disk space on your computer.

JPG is most suitable for the storage of digital photos (images which contain smooth transitions of color, shadows, brightness) and for sharing raster images on the Internet.

PNG

PNG image is compressed without quality loss. Usually PNG are used for storing graphics with sharp edges, text graphics, graphic elements (logos, designs, icons).

The main advantage of the format PNG is storage and usage of intermediate editing stages. This is due to the fact that compression at any stage of conservation passes without any loss of quality.

Vector formats.

PDF

PDF is familiar to everyone who has ever encountered with printing materials. Layouts of printed products (flyers, brochures, catalogs) are provided for printing in PDF format. They may contain elements of vector and raster graphics elements, such as text, icon or even video.

The unicity of the PDF is versatility and popularity. Many software programs understand it and you can open PDF document using not only special programs like Adobe Reader, but also Microsoft Word.

SVG

SVG literally means “scalable vector graphics”. This format is used to create and store 2D-vector images. Since this is a vector image, it is possible to increase the whole or a part of the image, without loss of quality. SVG allows to edit text in the image in any text editor.

You will learn more about all these formats in future series of articles on our blog.