ImageGear .NET v25.2 - Updated
Developer Guide / File Formats and Compressions / File Formats / What's the Best Format for...?
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    What's the Best Format for...?
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    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
    Document processing TIFF, PDF, PS, PTOCA, XPS
    Alpha Channel JPEG 2000
    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