Many people seem to be confused about image formats. What’s the difference between a .BMP, a .GIF and a .JPG file, anyway?  Well, this page will be a complete source of information about the different file formats, how they work, what software commonly use them, and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

The basics:  BMP

The BitMaP file format is, in essance, a complete picture of an image, with each dot represented by a number containing the color.

The not so basics: GIF

Graphic Interchange Format is a file that contains potentially many different pictures, commonly used for animation or document management.

The compression schemes: JPG/JPEG

JPG files use a compression routine that makes the file more of an instruction set to re-build a picture, and isn’t an actual representation of every color in every dot, rather more like a set of data that reconstitutes the image from a code, saving space in the file on a rather large scale.

Other imaging formats, and scalar representation: AI

Corel and Adobe both use a function of bezier curves to allow accurately scalable “drawings” that are a way of using instructions to draw lines and other objects that can be displayed at any size on the screen or on paper without getting “jaggy” edges or losing any detail. Flash uses schemes like this, as well as many CAD programs, all of which can also generate regular bitmaps from their work.

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