The Lossless PNG Format: I always save images as .PNGs, for their even lower data usage than .JPGs and their higher quality than 24-bit bitmaps. They can be be used in conjunction with layering and transparency for multiple applications, can be used to store animations (similar to .GIFs) and especially internet friendly.
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I admire your work, but these statements are not true. PNGs do not generally have a lower data storage need (smaller file size) than JPGs. They can in certain images which have large areas of exactly the same color and minimal detail. Clip art comes to mind.
PNG also does not have higher quality than 24-bit bitmaps. The quality is exactly the same. That is why PNG is lossless compression -- no detail from the uncompressed bitmap is lost. PNGs do support transparency while bitmaps do not, but that doesn't increase their quality.
.JPGs are almost always smaller for photographs or images like the ones you are posting. I wrote a C++ program to help people determine which image format makes smaller images here: http://code.google.com/p/imageguide/
That said, I agree that PNG is the best format to save these images in. It is, as you say, totally lossless, so no quality is lost AT ALL. JPG always loses some quality (though there is a lossless JPEG format, but it's large and never used).
@Sivar Maybe I should take the same image and save it as the two formats and see WHO WINS. I've never done that, but I always assumed .PNGs were smaller.
I'd never be caught dead using a .BMP due to their size or a .JPG due to their quality. Why people swear by .JPG in photos I'll never know. Sure they're big ones, but you just let your camera spew them out as raw files and then export them from a program as .PNGs. Unless old cameras don't raw em.
Considering the functionability of .PNG, I think .JPG is inferior and due to people's misconceptions that it's the best format for the internet, you can't find anything which isn't ruined.
@Sivar Maybe I should take the same image and save it as the two formats and see WHO WINS. I've never done that, but I always assumed .PNGs were smaller.
I'd never be caught dead using a .BMP due to their size or a .JPG due to their quality. Why people swear by .JPG in photos I'll never know. Sure they're big ones, but you just let your camera spew them out as raw files and then export them from a program as .PNGs. Unless old cameras don't raw em.
Considering the functionability of .PNG, I think .JPG is inferior and due to people's misconceptions that it's the best format for the internet, you can't find anything which isn't ruined.
Hence my thread.
Again, you totally picked the right format because PNG is great for archival. Don't take my post as a criticism! I just noticed a misconception about image formats and have a bad habit of replying to them.
If you were to save as both PNG and JPG, it wouldn't be as simple as comparing sizes because JPG size is variable. You can choose between high quality, small file size, and everything in-between. PNG image quality is unchangeable, other than a few software tricks that only go so far. Even at very high quality though, for photographic images, the JPG is likely to be smaller (though it STILL loses some quality, whether people notice it or not).
Image saved for the internet often choose "file size" over "quality" and it shows, but JPEG is capable of saving a lot of detail.
PNG is also more advanced in other ways, for example it supports transparency and translucency. It supports multiple compression algorithms (though in practice only "DEFLATE" is used, same as zip files). It also supports absurdly large images (more than 60,000 times wider and higher than JPG).
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I admire your work, but these statements are not true.
PNGs do not generally have a lower data storage need (smaller file size) than JPGs.
They can in certain images which have large areas of exactly the same color and minimal detail. Clip art comes to mind.
PNG also does not have higher quality than 24-bit bitmaps. The quality is exactly the same. That is why PNG is lossless compression -- no detail from the uncompressed bitmap is lost. PNGs do support transparency while bitmaps do not, but that doesn't increase their quality.
.JPGs are almost always smaller for photographs or images like the ones you are posting.
I wrote a C++ program to help people determine which image format makes smaller images here: http://code.google.com/p/imageguide/
That said, I agree that PNG is the best format to save these images in. It is, as you say, totally lossless, so no quality is lost AT ALL. JPG always loses some quality (though there is a lossless JPEG format, but it's large and never used).
I'd never be caught dead using a .BMP due to their size or a .JPG due to their quality. Why people swear by .JPG in photos I'll never know. Sure they're big ones, but you just let your camera spew them out as raw files and then export them from a program as .PNGs. Unless old cameras don't raw em.
Considering the functionability of .PNG, I think .JPG is inferior and due to people's misconceptions that it's the best format for the internet, you can't find anything which isn't ruined.
Hence my thread.
@pantalion did a good version but i love a "second opinion" so to say
If you were to save as both PNG and JPG, it wouldn't be as simple as comparing sizes because JPG size is variable. You can choose between high quality, small file size, and everything in-between. PNG image quality is unchangeable, other than a few software tricks that only go so far. Even at very high quality though, for photographic images, the JPG is likely to be smaller (though it STILL loses some quality, whether people notice it or not).
Image saved for the internet often choose "file size" over "quality" and it shows, but JPEG is capable of saving a lot of detail.
PNG is also more advanced in other ways, for example it supports transparency and translucency. It supports multiple compression algorithms (though in practice only "DEFLATE" is used, same as zip files). It also supports absurdly large images (more than 60,000 times wider and higher than JPG).