Graphics Workshop

Most scanners and digital cameras come with some kind of photoimaging software (usually a cut-down version of a full product). Every picture is not the same, especially once it is in digital format, and a lot of software usually stores images by default in its own proprietary format.

Generally though, most good ones can load images and 'Save As' in different formats. The main formats and their uses are listed here:

  • .bmp Bitmap format. Almost universal but memory-hungry.
  • .gif Graphics Interchange Format. Popular for non-photgraphic images on the web and memory efficient.
  • .tiff Tagged Image Format. Sometimes used by computer fax programs. Good for black & white.
  • .jpg JPEG Format. Standard these days for Photos on the web.
  • .png Portable Network Graphic Format. Similar to .gif.
Whatever the format, the physical dimensions of an image dictate the amount of memory it uses, alongside the number of colours used and the resolution (number of pixels). It is worth spending time optimising your images for the documents you are putting them in.

Always check the size of individual image files. Anything over 200kb will slow down a computer and may be able to be shrunk in memory by reducing the number of colours to 256 or the dimensions to a more efficient size.

It is possible to scan a normal sized photograph to create a file of over 2MB. This will not fit on a floppy. If imported into a picture editor, reduced in size and coverted to a .jpg, this image could be as small as 14KB.

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