I'm rapidly coming to think that graphics tools ought to make it inconvenient for their users to choose file type, and instead pick a sensible one themselves; JPEG seems to be very widely used where it is just not appropriate.
In this case, I think you can blame Windows; the image is designed as a desktop wallpaper which, assuming Windows, reduces you to the choice of jpg or bmp (I *believe*, though I'd be delighted to be proved wrong).
Are there any good pointers as to what graphics formats are appropriate for what sort of content anywhere? It's totally unclear to me.
If there's fine detail which should be preserved, and the range of colours is small, use GIF (does IE have PNG support?)
If there's fine detail and lots of colour range which are both essential, then PNG, TIFF or BMP in that order depending on what the recipient supports.
Otherwise, especially for photos, choose JPG.
If you're working in Photoshop or GIMP, save in native format so it preserves the layers, then produce versions in other formats to give to people.
That's basically it. I think you can put GIFs on the windows desktop but I've not checked.
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I may have to borrow one of those as an LJ icon. :)
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Are there any good pointers as to what graphics formats are appropriate for what sort of content anywhere? It's totally unclear to me.
Reply
If there's fine detail and lots of colour range which are both essential, then PNG, TIFF or BMP in that order depending on what the recipient supports.
Otherwise, especially for photos, choose JPG.
If you're working in Photoshop or GIMP, save in native format so it preserves the layers, then produce versions in other formats to give to people.
That's basically it. I think you can put GIFs on the windows desktop but I've not checked.
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