File Types

JPEG (JPG)

This file type is most common and it uses compression to reduce the size of the file so you can store it without losing memory. In Paint.Net you can choose the amount of compression for JPEG files for quality reasons. The more a JPEG file is compressed, the smaller the file size, but the picture quality will be poor. JPEGs use a compression technique called lossy. This file is a raster file.

GIF

GIF stands for Graphic Interface Format and it is good for drawings and line art, but not so good for photos as they only store a maximum of 256 colours. It's a lossless format and it has pretty good image sizes. GIF files are raster.

PNG

PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics and is a lossless compression format so images keep their quality and this means larger file sizes. It is good for photos and it doesn't store any additional information. This is a raster file.

PSD (PhotoShop)

PhotoShop files are lossless and keeps images at peak quality therefore have really big file sizes also it stores loads of imformation in conjunction with the image itself; these include:Layers, Masks and Transparency. You use these for Industry standard work. This is a raster file.

TIF

TIF stands for Tagged Image File and these have large file sizes because they're high quality and can store information along with the image, TIF files usually uses a lossless compression format. This is a raster file.

BMP

BMP is short for Bitmap and they're high quality and they don't use any compression techniques so huge files, but only really used by Microsoft or Microsoft Paint. This is a raster file.

Vector formats

There are two known vector formats these are .ai and eps.

.ai is Adobe Illustrator and eps is Encapsulated Postscript they both have small file sizes and both are just files with instructions inside on how to recreate the file.