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5. Working with PhotoLine / 5.7 Creating Images For The Web

### 5.7.3 File Formats for the Web

There are a variety of file formats that can be used on the web. All of them have their advantages and disadvantages.

GIF

GIF is one of the oldest web formats. Its characteristics are:

- only palette images, so maximum 256 colors
- only 1-bit transparency
- supports animations

PNG

PNG has been started to replace GIF. In wide areas it has succeeded, only for animations GIF is often still used.

- supports true color, but also palette images
- supports 1-bit, but also full transparency
- better compression than GIF
- lossless compression
- Through the extension APNG it also supports animations. APNG is now supported by all major web browsers. APNG images still have the file extension ".png".

JPEG

Another old web format is JPEG. Despite its age and although various successor formats have been developed, it is still widely used:

- supports true color images
- lossy compression
- no transparency

WebP

WebP has set out to inherit JPEG. However, it has only partially succeeded, although it offers better compression and is supported by all major browsers.

- supports true color images
- lossless and lossy compression
- full transparency
- supports animations

SVG

SVG is a bit of an outsider among web formats. It’s mostly good for vector graphics, but can also contain text and images.