Comparison of graphics file formats

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It has been suggested that Graphics file format summary be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

This is a comparison of graphics file formats.

[edit] General

Ownership of the format and related information.

Format Full name Owner File extension MIME type Application Patented


AGP ArtGem Project RL Vision .agp Prefferred graphics format when working with ArtGem No
AI Adobe Illustrator Document Adobe Systems .ai application/Illustrator Not suitable for the web. Adobe Illustrator files are editable using programs that support the format, such as Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, etc. Yes
CDR CorelDRAW Document Corel Corporation .cdr application/CorelDRAW Not suitable for the web. CorelDRAW files are editable using programs that support the format, such as CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, etc. Yes
CPC Cartesian Perceptual Compression Cartesian Products, Inc. .cpc, .cpi image/cpi Highly compressed raster imaging format Yes
GIF Graphics Interchange Format CompuServe,
Unisys (compression algorithm)		 .gif image/gif low-bandwidth usage of transparency and animation Yes (Expired)
IMA .ima .ima team .ima format for photographic images with HDR encoding No
ILBM InterLeaved BitMap Electronic Arts and Commodore Amiga .iff, .ilbm, .lbm image/x-ilbm Planar graphics format designed for Amiga graphics hardware. No
JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group Joint Photographic Experts Group .jpg, .jpeg (containers: .jfif, .jfi) image/jpeg photographic images Yes (disputed)
JPEG 2000 Joint Photographic Experts Group 2000 Joint Photographic Experts Group .jp2, .j2c image/jp2 photographic images, eventual replacement for JPEG Yes
PICT PICT Apple Computer .pict, .pic, .pct image/pict metafile for Mac OS, not meant for print publishing Yes
PNG Portable Network Graphics World Wide Web Consortium .png image/png W3C endorsed replacement for GIF. No
PSD Photoshop Document Adobe Systems .psd, .psb, .pdd image/psd, image/photoshop, image/x-photoshop Used mainly for storing image manipulation & editing data, not meant for the Web Yes
PSP Paint Shop Pro Document Corel Corporation .psp image/psp Not suitable for the web. It can only be opened in programs that support the format, such as Paint Shop Pro, The GIMP, etc. ?
SVG Scalable Vector Graphics World Wide Web Consortium .svg, .svgz (compressed) image/svg+xml scriptable vector image format; requires Web browser plug-in No
TGA Truevision Targa Truevision Inc. .tga, .tpic image/tga Used by many 3d rendering applications and 3d games. Yes?
TIFF Tagged Image File Format Adobe Systems .tiff, .tif image/tiff Document scanning and imaging format, also functions as a container No


Windows bitmap Windows bitmap Microsoft .bmp image/x-bmp Simple, uncompressed format for use primarily within Microsoft Windows No
WMPhoto Windows Media Photo Microsoft .wdp image/vnd.ms-photo Lightweight high-performance TIFF-like container format with HDR encoding for photographic images Yes (no licence costs)

[edit] Technical Details

Format Compression algorithm Raster / Vector Color depth Indexed color Trans­parency Meta­data Inter­lacing* Multi-page Ani­mation Layers Colour manage­ment Extend­able HDR format
AGP RLE Raster 32 No Yes No No No No Yes No No No
AI Lossy & Lossless Vector & Raster 1, 8, 24, 32 (multiple palettes ?) Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes ? No
CDR Lossy & Lossless Vector & Raster 1, 8, 24, 32 (multiple palettes) Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes ? No
CPC CPC Raster 1 No No Yes No Yes No No No Yes, via embedded dictionary No
GIF LZW Raster 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Yes Yes, index Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No ? No
ILBM Optional run-length encoding Raster 8-bit Yes No Yes Yes No No No No Yes No
IMA Lossy and lossless original mutiresolution analysis transformation Raster 8-bits, 16-bits integer, 32-bits floating-point No Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes
JPEG Lossy, DCT, RLE, Huffman Raster 8-bit (greyscale), 12-bit, 24-bit No No Yes Yes No No No Yes No No
JPEG 2000 Lossy & Lossless (DWT) Raster 8, 16 (greyscale) Up to 48-bit color? No No Yes Yes No No No Yes ? No
PICT None, RLE, QuickTime Raster & Vector 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 Yes Yes Yes ? No No No ? No? No
PNG Lossless, DEFLATE Raster 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64 Yes (1-8 bit modes) Yes, Alpha channel (8- or 16-bit) Yes Yes, Adam7 algorithm No No (see MNG and APNG) No Yes Yes, via chunks No
PSD None, RLE Raster & Vector 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64 Yes Yes Yes N/A No Yes Yes Yes No? Yes
PSP None Raster & Vector 1, 2, 8, 16, 24, 32, 48 Yes Yes Yes No ? No Yes ? ? No
SVG None (can use lossless gzip) Vector 24, 32 No Yes Yes N/A No Yes Yes (vector based) No Yes, XML based N/A
TGA None, RLE, and other Raster 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 Yes Yes Yes No No No No No ? No
TIFF None, LZW, RLE, ZIP, and other Raster & Vector 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 Yes (1-8 bit modes) Yes Yes ? Yes No Yes Yes Yes, via tags Yes, TIFF float
Windows bitmap None, RLE Raster 1, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No
WMPhoto Lossy & Lossless bi-orthogonal transform Raster 1, 2, 8, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 128 (floating-point) No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes

Note: Interlacing is meant only for graphics file formats used over the web.

[edit] See also

 This software-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../c/o/m/Comparison_of_graphics_file_formats.html"