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Image Formats

Several different image formats exist. Below are some of the common image types. They fall into two general categories:

Raw or Uncompressed - they include:

	Bitmap images are a popular format in the Windows environment. Wallpapers on the desktop are usually in the bitmap format.
	Tiff images are a popular Raw format on both PCs and Macintosh. They retain all the fidelity of the original image and so are usually a large file size.
	Photoshop images are also considered a Raw format. They include layer information so as to retain their ability to be edited in the future.

Compressed - they include:

	GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) started out as a compressed image format that would allow images to be sent over e-mail. They are still popular today and are commonly found in web pages. More info...
	JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) Images are a popular way for photos to appear on web pages. More info...

This Page Last Modified on: November 4, 2002

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