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Image File Types

So the next thing is understanding and how these images are going to be used. What is the end use of this image? So if I'm going to be creating something, whether it be a vector logo or an illustration for an art piece that's going to be photographed, I need to know in the end what this file is going to be used for, and then go ahead and capture by file format accordingly. So here's the questions that you can ask. So if somebody requests something from you, what you need to know is, how is this going to be used in? The simplest question is, is it going to be Web based or is it going to be print based? Web based can be in many different things when the term Web is going to be very broad in this particular instance, and this is going to be used for on a TV or a video monitor on your computer? Is it going to be viewed on a cell phone or a tablet or any light emanating device? So anything that is going to be lit from the background any type of display if the image is going to be used on li...

ght emanating device. That's what we call Web based in this term. Web based is just very, very, very broad. Or is my final image going to be used for print based items and anything is gonna be printed? So a brochure or a flyer or a book or is gonna be used in a magazine are gonna be printing a business card or a letter head with this T shirts, balloons, signage, anything that's actually gonna be printed? That's what we call print based. So what's the image use for? Is it for Web or is it for print? Broad terms? But that's our generalization to keep it as simple as possible. Then we're gonna talk about the file types based on whether or not we have a vector image or a raster image, and whether that vector image is going to be used in print or for the Web or that raster image will be used for print or for the Web. We've got a lot of different file types, and each file type has its own distinct advantages over other ones, So J pegs are one of the most popular file types simply because every type of computer and every Web browser and just about every printer out there can handle a J peg. So in most cases, people just go for the J peg because you can email them, you can post them anywhere you can send them. You can open them up, you can look at them, and J pegs are pretty much universal. However, there are some things to understand about J peg formats that are going to be beneficial and some that are not gonna be beneficial. So one of the best things that Jay Peg is used for is for saving images or photographs. You take a picture with the camera, you go ahead and take a picture of your artwork. J pegs. We're gonna work great. J pegs are fantastic because they capture the entire color range of your image or your artwork J pegs or one of these four maps that can be used both for use on a website or for print purposes. So it's very universal, and people use that all the time. So one of the issues is is that J pegs can only be saved in a raster format, which means if I have a vector logo and I want to save this Using a J Peg format and retaining the quality of a vector doesn't work because it breaks it into pixels or rast arises this so J pegs are best for images or photographing artwork, keeping the entire color range. But it's not great for type, and it's not great for logos or fine artwork. And as I have stated, there isn't. You can't save a vector file as a J peg because J pegs Onley save as pixels. So once you take a vector files having us a J peg. It's no longer vector. And now when you make that J peg larger, larger, you make it, the more it's going to degrade because you're stretching out over a larger area. A tiff file is something that's been around for quite some time on a tiff. File is also used for saving images and photographs, just like a J peg. The only issue is is that we don't use tiffs on the Web because we have no. The Web does not understand what a tiff format ISS, so tiff formats are going to be when you are saving an image or photograph of your artwork, and it's only going to be used for print. So saving a tiff file is going to look very much like a J. Peg is going to have the raster pixels in there. But tiffs are only for print. We can never save a tiff. File our vector file as a tiff simply because, just like a J peg anything, it's vector when it's gets saved, A J peg or a tiff is gonna be. Rast arising two pixels so J pegs could be used for print or Web tiff files are for print only. We can't save a tiff file to the Web because our coding does not understand what a tiff file is. Two files have been around for a long, long time. Anybody who's been in the print world has used them for a long time, so stiff for print. Only then we have PNG files. People love PNG files from multiple reasons. One. Just about every file, format or every device. Consejo, P and G. But what are they and what did they really dio? Well, PNG's are great for saving graphics and logo or type for the Web on Lee because I can't take a logo and save it for a Web format easily and retain the vector qualities. If I need a logo for a website, I don't want to save it as a J Peg file because a J. Peg file is going to go in and going to compress the file, and it's going to cause a lot of issues with the rendering of a vector file. PNG files are going to take that vector logo. It converts it to a raster or a pixel based logo, but it does it in a way that is much less destructive. So if I have to save any fine art, fine lines, graphics type or logos for the Web, I'm going to save that. As a PNG in the PNG is still going to rast, arise it and make it pixel based. It's just going to do it and a much better format, and I can only save it and raster files. And once you save a vector file is a PNG. It's no longer a vector file, so you are at the limit of scaling it again. If you scale a PNG too large, you're gonna be stretching those pixels over a larger area, and the image is going to be degraded. The one interesting thing is that PNG files can be made transparent, so if you have a logo on a white background and you save it as a J peg, one logo is going to be more degraded. But that white background is going to be solid white, whereas if you save a logo for the Web as a PNG, that white background can be made transparent, which is why people use this all the time. It's a great file format. Plus it tends to be slightly smaller than a J peg. A gift file has the same properties as a PNG PNG s are a little bit newer. GIF files pretty much the same idea. Safer graphics, your logo for the type for web they do rast arise the file. They have all the attributes of a basic PNG, and you can save the background as transparent. So between a PNG and a gift file, they're pretty much the same. We use PNG is more often simply because as the technology comes out, PNG's have a little bit have a little bit more options built into them that you can dio with some of your files E P s files. This is a much older file format. This has been around a long time and is still around but is being phased out. And this is going to be somebody who's been in the print world for a very long time. So any PS file is for saving graphics or logos or type vector files for print on Lee. We cannot use an E. P s file on the web. We used to save images A CPS files too. But tiffs and J pegs basically come from that. So if you do get an E. P s file, it's most likely going to be a vector file. And it's only for print. Can't use it for the Web. We don't use this much anymore. I don't see this as much anymore because we have the other file formats that work better than this. SPG files are a newer type of file, and this is the one interesting thing because everything that we see on a light emanating device is always gonna be pixel based. An SPG file allows us to take a vector file a logo type or illustration, and actually save it for the Web. But what's interesting with the Web is we rarely get into a website and actually get a picture and zoom in on a picture. We normally see the picture at that size. We click on that picture and it opens a larger picture of you. And then we close that window and we simply look at the Web site or the items on the website. At that size. SPG file stands for scalable vector graphic. So if we did want to put a vector graphic on a Web site and have it still retained its vector, the S V G is the only file type that allows us to do that. Now. This is very new and very current, and this is not the kind of thing that a lot of people are using yet. But it's starting to become something that is going to become more and more popular where we can have a vector logo, keep its vector qualities and have it be scalable on a website. The thing is, we have to start with a vector file in order for this SPG file toe work. I can't take a raster based image and turn it into an SPG once it's pixel based, its pixel based. So any vector based files I can save us an SPG. They're usually used just for the Web only not for print. We have other files for print that are gonna work Justus Good, if not better, so SPG vector graphics for the Web. Definitely something new. If you've never heard of it, don't worry about it. There's other file formats that you can use. PdF. So pdf is amazing because it is basically universally acceptable everywhere, and almost every application out there allows you to save anything as a PdF. And what's interesting about a pdf is if you have vector and you save it as a PdF, it will remain vector. If you have a raster based image and you save it as a PdF, it will remain raster based, and so anything that you put into a pdf, you can have a combination of low grow and type along with a picture in the same thing, and the entire pdf will make that. PDF retained the vector qualities of the vector images retain the image quality of the pixel based images, and you can use PDFs were print everywhere, and you can also use them for display on the Web. And when I say for display on the Web, we don't actually use the file format. Pdf on the Web Pdf is usually a file that gets attached to a website that when we click on that file, it actually comes up and it views in the browser. So pdf format isn't really a file type that we use for the Web. It's more of a downloadable file that we can attach to a website, and we can see. But Pdf's are pretty much the most universal format out there. And if you have a file on, you don't know what to save it. As you can always say, it is a pdf because the end use whoever is using it on the end can always translate that pdf into the file type that they need. So Pdf actually stands for portable document format, which is truly portable across all different platforms, all different media and all different types of display. So a lot of good things come from a pdf