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
|
|