Why are there so many different image formats on the Web?

It positively is genuine that there are bunches of various picture designs on the web — Just at How Stuff Works, we utilize 6 distinctive picture designs:

• GIF records
• JPEG records
• Energized GIF records
• MPEG documents
• Shockwave documents
• XnView documents

The two generally regular by a long shot are GIF and JPEG records. Both of these organizations encode static (instead of energized) bitmap pictures.

In a bitmap picture, the picture document needs to characterize the specific shade of each pixel in the picture. For instance, envision a run-of-the-mill bitmap on the web that is 400 by 400 pixels. To characterize this picture, you would require 24 pieces for every pixel for 160,000 pixels, or 480,000 bytes. That would be a tremendous picture record, so both the GIF and JPG designs unexpectedly pack the picture. Know more about What is a vector image, why, and how can you use it?

In a GIF picture, the quantity of tones is diminished to 256, and afterward “runs” of same-shading pixels are encoded in a color+numberOfPixels design. For instance, if there are 100 pixels on a line with the shading 41, the picture record stores the tone (41) and the length of the run (100). This makes a GIF document extraordinary for putting away drawings that have bunches of same-shading pixels, similar to this picture from How Microprocessors Work:

This is a 500 by 500-pixel picture, yet as opposed to taking 750,000 bytes, it takes just 9,000 bytes to store it as a GIF.

A JPG record utilizes a considerably more mind-boggling strategy to pack pictures, similar to photos, where the shade of each pixel is unique. A GIF document makes an ideal propagation of the first, while a JPG doesn’t. See Question 289 for certain subtleties.

An energized GIF is a grouping of GIF documents all reinforced together and showed consistently. With enough sheets, you can get exceptionally sensible activities. Notwithstanding, the size of the document is the amount of the GIF records used to make the grouping, and that can add up rapidly. There are a few enlivened GIFs in How Engines Work. Every one of them is huge contrasted with a static GIF. For instance, this vivified motor GIF is around 75,000 bytes:

A MPEG document utilizes a perplexing calculation as a JPEG record does — it attempts to dispense with redundancy between casings to altogether pack video data. Additionally, it permits a soundtrack (which vivified GIFs don’t). Since a run-of-the-mill grouping has hundreds or thousands of edges, document sizes can in any case get very enormous. How Helicopters Work contains twelve or so MPEG records. Read this article about What is a vector image, why, and how can you use it?

Shockwave gives a vector-based movement capacity. Rather than determining the shade of each pixel, a Shockwave document indicates the directions of shapes (things like lines, square shapes, circles, and so on) just as the shade of each shape. Shockwave records can be minuscule. They permit movement and sound. The pictures are additionally adaptable — because they are vector-based, you can develop the picture and it will in any case look incredible. This page contains two extraordinary enlivened Shockwave records that are both around 10,000 bytes in size. Here is one of them:

At last, there are the NxView documents (You can see a genuine illustration of How Gas Turbine Engines Work). These are vector-based 3D documents that permit client communication. You can pivot and focus on a 3-D article in any capacity you like. This is basically the Shockwave thought taken to 3-D. The records are shockingly little (100K to 200K) for the measure of detail they contain.

You can see that each document design has a bunch of highlights and benefits that settle on it the most ideal decision in a given circumstance. That is the reason there are so many picture designs!

Know more about What is a vector image, why, and how can you use it?