Website Images: JPEG, PNG or GIF – Which one should be use?

Website was developed about 15 years ago. It started as a full text medium and developed to full-featured and more sophisticated applications. As it improved from mostly text, more and more website images were added to make diverse web pages lively and interesting.

As these development emerge—more website images/photos were added several image formats was developed which was patronized by web browsers: The JPEG, GIF, and PNG Format. PNG is the newest of the three, but after few years, browsers who use the PNG format dramatically declined.

Now, the question is: Which format should you use to display your website images? Is it the JPEG, GIF, or PNG? To answer those queries let’s discuss each format to determine which format we should use.

The GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

This format is the eldest of the three. It was out in 1987. The key feature of this format is 256 maximum colors only—which means that not more that 256 colors shall appear in an image, there’s limitation when used on photographs. If you use GIF to save digital images, you may observe that there are colors that don’t blend because of the limitation of color palette to 256 only.

Because GIF’s 256 color limitation, this format is best used on website images with limited colors like: logos and illustrations, screenshots with limited and solid color and saving them in a dialog box as GIF. Saving screenshots in GIF format will be smaller than saving it as JPEG format, even if you compress it to the highest extent.

Another advantage of using GIF is you can format your website images and make it transparent, which will enable you to make these website images and or additional graphics jive with the color or background of your webpage.

The JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

The JPEG is the most popular among the three formats; this format is used for saving images from digital cameras. From its description itself we may assume to what this format is designed for—JPEG-“Joint Photographic Experts Group”. JPEG can accommodate from thousands to millions of colors, unlike GIF which supports only 256 colors. Meaning this format is far more advanced than the GIF as far as photographic website images’ quality is concern. And JPEG format is supported by all web browsers and image editors which make it perfect format when displaying or loading website images and photos in your website.

Another thing about JPEG is that when using the JPEG format, it is faster loading website images on your website depending on how much compression you will use on the file. The more you compress the file the smaller it gets and the faster you will be able to load it in your website, which is good! But, the problem is, too much compression of the file will affect the quality of the website images/photos. Therefore, for the quality of the photos not to be put in jeopardy, you have to use the right amount of compression. The file becomes smaller but the photos would still look great!

And if you will just be printing using the JPEG format, compression is not advisable. You may do so but use minimal compression.

The PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

The PNG format is the latest. It was launched in 1996 as a response to overcome the technical shortcomings of the GIF format. Meaning PNG is the improved of the GIF type file format. PNG file supports the 256 colors (GIF) format also called PNG-8 (8-bit), PNG-24 (24 bit) 16.7 million colors, and even as high as 48-bits! However, there are advantages and disadvantages in using this PNG format in website images.

Using the PNG format, files tend to be larger compared either to GIF or JPEG files. The same as the JPEG file, PNG file can also be compressed like the JPEG format. PNG’s compression is lossless—meaning even if the file is compressed the quality of the file is the same as the original – Which is also the reason why the PNG file is much larger than the JPEG of the same file.

Another thing is the browser support. Yes, new browsers today supports PNG format but what about the visitors of your website? The visitors of your website might still be using an old-model browser—IE 6.0 for instance which does not support the PNG format, therefore they will not be able to see your website images which may be important for your visitors.

The PNG format is becoming trendier because of the quality of the website images it provides, especially for smaller sizes. You can use PNG format for smaller website images with very minimal difference. But when it comes to larger photographic website images, I will prefer the JPEG format.

Choosing an image format to be used in a website images is very important; you have to consider a lot of factors: One is the compatibility of the browsers which are widely used by your target consumer or visitor so that website images or photos will be easy to download or viewed. Another is the kind of website images or photos you will be loading to your web site, the quality and the size.

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