ImageGear for C and C++ on Windows v21.0 - Updated
User 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 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