What is the best compression format to use, JPEG, GIF, or PNG?
GIF and JPEG are the most popular web formats and supported by virtually all versions of all the major browsers. GIF compression is best for graphics that you create on the computer in Photoshop or other software tools. For maximum compression GIF takes special advantage of areas of identical color, which computer-generated graphics tend to have a lot of. JPEG compression is ideal for Photographs, which have few areas of identical color. JPEG’s must be rectangular and completely opaque, whereas gif images can have holes. This is important to know because if you have a large layer with a hole in it sitting on top of other elements, and that layer is set to compress as a JPEG file, the lower elements may not be visible on the resulting page because SiteGrinder will have merged the transparent area with the layers behind it into one solid image. The PNG format is the most recent and, in many ways, has the most features and options. The downside of PNG is that it is the least supported by
