ImageGear v26.0 - Updated
What's the Best Format for...?
Developer Guide > File Formats and Compressions > File Formats > What's the Best Format for...?

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
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