Image File Types

GIF FILES
GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. GIF is a bitmap image format, this was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and since then is used everywhere on the world wide web. The format supports atleast up to 8 bits per pixel thus allowing a single image to reference a palette of up to 256 distinct colours.The colors are chosen from the 24-bit RGB color space.
JPEG FILES
JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital photography also known as image. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality. JPEG compression is used in a number of image file formats.
ANIMATED GIF
An animated Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) file is a graphic image on the Web which moves. It is used to create a twirling icon or a banner with a hand that waves or letters that magically get larger. This sort of file is specified as GIF89a that contains a single file with a set of images that are presented in a specified order. An animated GIF can loop endlessly or it can present on or few sequences and then stop the animation.
MPEG
MPEG stands for Moving Picture Experts Group. It is used to refer to the family of digital video compression standards and file formats developed by the group. MPEG generally produces good quality in video format. MPEG algorithms compress data to form small bits that can be easily transimitted and then decompressed. MPEG achieves its high compression rate by storing only the changes from one frame to another, instead of each entire frame. This video information is then encoded using a technique called Discrete Cosine Transform. MPEG uses a type of lossy compression, since some data is removed. However this removal of data is barely noticeable by the naked eye.
SHOCKWAVE
Shockwave has the elements of generating, importing and editing of movies. Shockwave was originally defined with one primary objective: to create small files for displaying entertaining animations.
WHAT IS A VECTOR IMAGE ?
Unlike the other types of files listed above Vector images are not made of a gride of pixels. Instead Vector Graphics are comprised of paths which are defined by a start and end point, along with other points, curves and angles along the way. A path can be a line, a square, a triangle or even a curvy shape. These paths can be used to create simple drawings or complex diagrams. Paths are even used to define character face types.