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JustPix
Preparing Digital Photos for Your Website
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There are three main formats used for publishing images on a website, they are JPG, GIF, and PNG. See the Glossary for their definitions.
Each format has its own strengths and weaknesses. For example, images in the PNG format will usually have a larger file size than an equivalent JPEG or GIF image. However, PNG images offer enhanced transparency that is not available with the other formats.
Conversely, the JPG format does not offer any transparency at all, yet offers the best compression, and hence smaller file size, for complex images such as colour photography. Images with limited colours and complexity, such as simple graphics with text and shapes (i.e. navigation buttons and icons) lend themselves to the GIF format.
Digital cameras normally save photographs in JPG format and in most cases this is fine for use on your website. All you need to do is crop and re-size to create your web ready image.
Using advanced features such as transparency requires the use of image manipulation software, which is beyond the scope of this guide.
The examples below show the benefits of each format.
 JPG format is ideal for complex colour photography. |
 GIF format is better suited to images with a small number of colours and text, such as button graphics. |
 PNG format allows complex colour images to have transparency, so in the example above the webpage background colour shows through areas of the Crest that have no colour. |
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