This week we came to grasps with file formats and which ones are best for web publishing and print publishing. We also learnt about Colour modes and which ones to use for web and print too. There a several file formats out there in use, some can be used for Vector Graphics and others are best suited for Bimap Graphics. Some support both aswell, but here a few I`ll attempt to explain.
JPEG/JPG: Is the most common file fotmat of all. It supports Bitmap graphics such as photos and high detail images and is used for transmitting images on the web. JPEGs can contain upto 16 million colours (true colour). Cannot support transparency.
GIF: Excellent for Vector Graphics like Logos, Animations and anything with flat areas of colour. It can only dispay 256 colours and supports Transparency
PNG: Another Bitmap format that like the two mentioned above supports compression. It was developed to have all the detail of a JPEG but the size of a GIF in storage terms. It also supports Transparency.
WBMP: Wireless Bitmap. This format is used for mobile graphic applications and is monochrome.
TIFF: Supports Bitmap and Vector Graphics but on a larger scale. Supports several colour modes (RBG, CYMK) therefore has superior compression.
PDF: Portable Document File. Supports Vector and Bitmap. Excellent for transmitting Data over the Internet that you dont want tampered as it`s stored as a graphic file.
Colour Modes:
There are 3 main colour modes which are;
Grayscale: 1 Channel of colour with 256 shades of gray. 1 Being White, 255 Black.
RGB: Builds colour through the additionof light and is used primarily for the production of images on the Web and Computer Graphics. It has a wider range of colours to work with than CMYK.
CMYK: Comprises Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black and is used solely for print be it Photos or newspapers and magazines. The Gamut for CMYK is not a far ranging as RGB as it uses paint whereas RGB uses light.
We also covered Websafe colours of which there are only 216 and about Hexadecimal codes which consists of digits from 0-9 and letters from A-F preceded by the # sign. E.G. #153FC6. When using Websafe Hexadecimal colours you employ only every third number and every third letter in the range it for each RGB value. E.G For Blue it`s #0000FF, Green #00FF00 and Red #FF0000.
These seemed daunting at first but once I got to understand the sequencing it soon clicked.
