What's the difference between image file format extensions?

Have you noticed how many image file format extensions there are?  Ever wonder exactly what the difference is between them all?  The breakdown shown below are of the most commonly used extensions to help you determine which to use for your next picture/photo project.


.TIF - Not to be used for the web as most browsers do not display them.  Does not use any compression which in turn produces large saved files.

.PNG - Save a photo or drawing with high quality and save it to the web or view it on your computer.  This provides the best quality, saving as a smaller file and producing more colors.  It works by finding patterns to help compress the file.

.JPEG and .JPG - Save a photo with good quality and save it to the web, attach it in an email or view it on your computer.  Never use with line art as the lines and edges are not crisp and loss quality.  It works by "analyzing images and discarding kinds of information that the eye is least likely to notice."

.BMP - Save any kind of picture with high quality for viewing on your computer.  Should not be used other than to be viewed on computers because they are uncompressed.

.GIF - Save a simple drawing with lower quality for attaching in an email or saving to the web.  Do not use for photos as this can only use up to 256 colors out of about 16 million, which is equal to it losing about 98% of its quality.  It works by "achieving compression in two ways. First, it reduces the number of colors of color-rich images, thereby reducing the number of bits needed per pixel, as just described. Second, it replaces commonly occurring patterns (especially large areas of uniform color) with a short abbreviation: instead of storing "white, white, white, white, white," it stores "5 white."

RAW - an additional one not seen very often and mainly imported from digital cameras.  Should not be used and should convert pictures to TIF, PNG or JPG/JPEG

For a full list of every file type available (not just image types), you can find more at Wikipedia. Be advised, there are a LOT of them!

ENJOY!

("quoted content" from http://www.wfu.edu/ Wake Forest University)