ImageGear v26.5 - 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, TIFF, PNG
    Grayscale/many shades TIFF, JPEG
    Monochrome / high resolution TIFF (CCITT Group 3 Compression and CCITT Group 4 Compression)
    Noisy Color: PNG, TIFF, JPEG
    Lossless GIF, TIFF, PNG, JPEG (Lossless JPEG Compression)
    Lossy TIFF (JPEG Compression), JPEG
    Extra data to store TIFF
    Multimedia PNG, GIF, JPEG
    Multi-page
    Photographic images JPEG
    Internet images GIF, JPEG, PNG
    PC paint programs and/or graphics arts TIFF, BMP
    Document processing TIFF, PDF, PS
    Alpha Channel
    Format Read Only Support Read/Write Support
    CUR Single 1-bit alpha channel Single 8-bit alpha channel
    JPEG   Single alpha channel
    PNG   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