ImageGear for C and C++ on Windows v19.10 - 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 are considered most practical for the listed type of data, and can be used as a starting point. You can use a format with the appropriate character 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 provides recommendations only. To make an informed choice, read about each format in more detail in the section ImageGear Supported File Formats Reference.

Image Type Recommended
Colors
Grayscale/many shades
Monochrome / high resolution
Banking data
Noisy

Color:

Bi-tonal:

Lossless
Lossy
Extra data to store
Iconic images
Facsimiles
Multimedia
Photographic images
Internet images
Mac paint programs
PC paint programs and/or graphics arts
X Windows
Medical data
CAD/Vector
Document processing
Multi-page
Gigabyte-sized images
Transparency
Alpha channel

Alpha channel is an additional image channel that specifies transparency (or opacity) of each pixel in the image. ImageGear provides alpha channel support for the following file format filters:

Format Read-Only Support Read/Write Support
Adobe PSB
  • Single alpha channel
  • Additional alpha channels as ImageGear extra channels
 
Adobe PSD
  • Single alpha channel
  • Additional alpha channels as ImageGear extra channels
 
CUR Single 1-bit alpha channel Single 8-bit alpha channel
EXIF-JPEG  

Single alpha channel

EXIF-TIFF
  • Single alpha channel
  • Additional alpha channels as ImageGear extra channels
  • The following compressions are supported with alpha channel:
    • Uncompressed
    • Packed Bits
    • LZW
    • Deflate
 
FlashPix
  • Single alpha channel
  • Converts RGB + Alpha to RGB during loading
 
ICO   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
MAC PICT
  • Single alpha channel
  • Alpha channel must be an 8-bit image
 
PNG   Single alpha channel
RAW Single alpha channel in uncompressed images  
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