ImageGear .NET - Updated
What's the Best Format for...?
User Guide > File Formats and Compressions > File Formats > What's the Best Format for...?

The following table contains the formats that Accusoft Corporation considers most practical for the listed type of data, and can be used as a starting point. You can use a format with the appropriate bit depth and one that provides either the most efficient use of space, or the fastest loading and saving capabilities.

Bear in mind that the following table represents recommendations only. To make an informed choice, read about each format in more detail in the section File Formats Reference

Image Type Recommended
Colors JPEG, JPEG 2000, TIFF, PNG
Grayscale/many shades TGA, TIFF, JPEG, DICOM
Monochrome / high resolution TIFF (CCITT Group 3 Compression and CCITT Group 4 Compression)
Banking data IBM IOCA
Noisy Color: PNG, TIFF, JPEG
Lossless GIF, TIFF, PNG, JPEG (Lossless JPEG Compression)
Lossy TIFF (JPEG Compression), JPEG
Extra data to store TIFF
Iconic images ICO
Multimedia PNG, GIF, JPEG
Multi-page
Photographic images PSB, PSD, PCD, JPEG
Internet images GIF, JPEG, PNG, JPEG 2000, WBMP
PC paint programs and/or graphics arts PCX, GEM, TIFF, BMP
X Windows XBM, XPM, XWD
Medical data DICOM
CAD/Vector DWG, DWF, DXF, CGM, DGN, HPGLSVG, U3D
Camera Raw
Document processing TIFF, PDF, PS, PTOCA, XPS
Alpha Channel
Format Read Only Support Read/Write Support
CUR

Single 1-bit alpha channel

Single 8-bit alpha channel

ICO

Single 1-bit alpha channel

Single 8-bit alpha channel

JPEG  

Single alpha channel

JPEG 2000  

Single alpha channel, for grayscale and RGB images

JPX  
  • Single alpha channel, for grayscale and RGB images
  • Additional alpha channels as ImageGear Extra channels
PNG  

Single alpha channel

PSB
  • Single alpha channel
  • Additional alpha channels as ImageGear Extra channels
 
PSD
  • Single alpha channel
  • Additional alpha channels as ImageGear Extra channels
 
SGI  

Single alpha channel

TGA  

Single alpha channel

TIFF  
  • Single alpha channel
  • Additional alpha channels as ImageGear Extra channels
  • The following compressions are supported with alpha channel:
    • Uncompressed
    • Packed Bits
    • LZW
    • Deflate