What is the difference between a JPEG and a GIF?
The primary consideration of when to use JPEG or GIF depends on the type of image you’re working with. JPEG should be used with photographs and graphics with lots of color fields, and particularly colors that blend and fade into one another. GIF will compress your image well if your image has flat color fields. Use JPEG for images with more complex color patterns. JPEG enables you to save images with millions of colors, whereas the GIF option restricts you to 256 colors. Another reason to choose between a JPEG or GIF is the issue of file size. JPEG permits a greater degree of compression than the GIF alternative, enabling quicker downloading times for larger graphics. And JPEGs appear to retain almost complete image quality for most photographs. GIF’s can also be made transparent, so you see the background color of the browser window you’re in.
