catcode.com > Guide to Images > Choosing Graphics Format

Choosing the Right Graphics Format

Current web browsers support three kinds of graphics formats:

If you're new to the world of graphics and wonder what all this fuss about formats is in the first place, here's an explanation.

Here's a quick overview of the differences between them:

GIFJPGPNG
  • Images limited to 256 colors
  • Best for “line art”
  • Can be animated
  • Can have a "transparent" color
  • Images can have 16,777,216 colors
  • Best for photo-quality images
  • No animation
  • No transparency
  • Images can have 16,777,216 colors
  • Best for “line art”
  • No animation
  • Transparency can be set on a pixel-by-pixel basis

Mozilla, Opera, Netscape 6, and Internet Explorer version 4.0 and above support PNG, but older browsers don't. You can find out more about PNG from the official website.

<< Index
^ Index