When I am saving photos and graphics, what are the best formats to use? ie PNG, JPEG etc.

 

Thanks

For a photo you would most likely use .jpeg and for a graphic image you would most likely use .gif but both can be saved in a .png which can be optimised in a range of formats to support a variety of images. Adobe Fireworks likes .png images but if you don't save them properly they can take up a lot of file space so watch out for that when you are choosing your options.

as regards the graphic format, which is the best to keep an image sharp, or do they both to that?

graphics, gifs, png, jpg It really depends on the graphic and what you are using them for as to which on you use.

 

Photos, jpg or png.

 

 

Just play about see which one is best for what you are doing as best compression without too much quality loss is what you are after and it really depends on the image and what the image needs to do as to which is the best for the job

Oh poo I can't remember! It's something I do on autopilot and my stuff is on my other computer so I can't even run through anything whilst paying attention! Duh!

 

With graphics you have to set the anti-aliasing properties correctly so that the outline is smooth otherwise it starts bitmapping when you change size. It won't happen with a jpeg I don't think but it can with a gif. And if you are using text on a graphic to save a s a gif it is best to convert the text to outline format first because otherwise it gets really messy and doesn't resize at all well.

Pixelated edges only happens with gifs if there are translucent bits, in which case it is probably better to use a png and have a png fix attached to the html so it is backwards compatible with browsers.

 

There is an option in save for web mode in photoshop to set a matte colour on a gif, which will anti alias the image to the transparent background using that matte colour. But the matte colour must be the colour of your background otherwise the gif will look a mess, as you can guess this method will not work if there is a texture in the background, so a png is adviced then

 

 

Text is good saved as a gif (as mentioned above) but only if it has a background, if it has a translucent background this is best done as a png, as you can get very good compression with a png and you won't get pixelated edges.