Overview of Image File Formats

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Overview

About

This note is about …

Image Types

• Vector
• Raster

Vector vs. Raster

When do you use a vector program and when do you use a raster file format?

That depends on what you are creating.

• Vector: If you are designing an illustration with clear contrasts between the elements of the design.
• Raster: For images with blending colors and continuous tones (such as photographs).

• Going for vector as opposed to raster depends on whether you want to scale or resize images.
• Raster images are built-up in pixels, which means that when you enlarge an image, you stretch the pixels and lower the quality.
• Vector images are made-up of points, curves and lines that are defined by mathematical equations. Without going into further detail, it basically means that enlarging an image does not affect the quality.

Image File Formats

Raster

• ANI

• ANIM

• APNG

• ART

• AVIF - AV1 Image File Format (AVIF)

• BMP - Bitmap (BMP) (Windows Bitmap)

• BPG

• BSAVE

• CAL

• CIN

• Delivery Formats:

  • Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)
    • JPEG 20000
    • JPEG XL
    • JPEG XT
  • Graphic Interchange Format (GIF)
  • Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
  • Exchangeable Image File (EXIF)
  • WebP Image Format
  • High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF)
  • High Dynamic Range (HDR) Raster Formats

• Authoring Interchange Formats:

  • Tag Image File Format (TIFF)
  • Netpbm Format Family:
    • PPM
    • PGM
    • PBM
    • PNM

• Container Formats of Raster Graphics Editors:

  • Adobe Photoshop Document (PSD)

• Other Raster Formats:

  • Better Portable Graphics (BPG)
  • Icon (ICO) which is a sub-set of Bitmap (BMP) and/or Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
  • Extensible Image Serialization Format (XISF)

• Vector Formats:

  • Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM)
  • Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

• Other 2-Dimensional Vector Formats:

  • AFDesign (Affinity Designer document)
  • AI (Adobe Illustrator Artwork) — proprietary file format developed by Adobe Systems
  • CDR — proprietary format for CorelDRAW vector graphics editor
  • !DRAW — a native vector graphic format (in several backward compatible versions) for the RISC-OS computer system begun by Acorn in the mid-1980s and still present on that platform today
  • DrawingML — used in Office Open XML documents
  • GEM — metafiles interpreted and written by the Graphics Environment Manager VDI subsystem
  • GLE (Graphics Layout Engine) — graphics scripting language
  • HP-GL (Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language) — introduced on Hewlett-Packard plotters, but generalized into a printer language
  • HVIF (Haiku Vector Icon Format)
  • Lottie — format for vector graphics animation
  • MathML (Mathematical Markup Language) — an application of XML for describing mathematical notations
  • NAPLPS (North American Presentation Layer Protocol Syntax)
  • ODG (OpenDocument Graphics)
  • PGML (Precision Graphics Markup Language) — a W3C submission that was not adopted as a recommendation
  • PSTricks and PGF/TikZ are languages for creating graphics in TeX documents
  • QCC — used by Quilt Manager (by Quilt EZ) for designing quilts
  • ReGIS (Remote Graphic Instruction Set) — used by DEC computer terminals
  • Remote imaging protocol — system for sending vector graphics over low-bandwidth links
  • TinyVG — binary, simpler alternative to SVG[6]
  • VML (Vector Markup Language) — obsolete XML-based format
  • Xar — format used in vector applications from Xara
  • XPS (XML Paper Specification) — page description language and a fixed-document format

JPEG

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Appendix

Note created on 2024-05-13 and last modified on 2024-05-13.

See Also

• Digital Asset Management
• ImageMagick
• Why You Should Be Using the AVIF Image Format

Backlinks

LIST FROM [[Overview of Image File Formats]] AND -"CHANGELOG" AND -"00-INBOX/Overview of Image File Formats"

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