The one thing you will notice on the Internet is the common misuse of image file types. This is commonly the result of web designers that have just learned the basics of HTML and are getting their feet wet by creating simple pages, while not knowing the impact the misused graphic file types are having.

Here is a breakdown of the two most popular file types and when you should be using them:

GIF Format:

The term GIF is an acronym for Graphics Interchange Format and was created in 1987 by Bob Berry out of Compuserve.

As a web designer, you should always think of GIF in association with Line-Art or Clip-Art. This typically means cartoons, drawings, buttons, text images, or basically any artwork that is not a photograph. The reason for this is that GIF photographs tend to bloat the file size of the image and this will cause the loading time for your website to increase.

When you are creating a GIF image, you are able to define the amount of colors that are used in the image. For example, you can specify the colors of a GIF image up to 256 colors. It doesn't seem like a lot, but even with this amount of colors, you are able to get sufficient photographic gradations in your image results.

JPEG Format:

The term JPEG is an acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group and was created in 1990 by Eric Hamilton.

As the name implies, JPEGs were made for photographic images. Whenever you are designing a website, always associate JPEGs with photographs. You will do your website visitors a great service by saving photos in this format, since they will load much quicker than if that same photo was saved as a GIF.

When you are creating a JPEG image, you define the quality by means of adjusting a percentage. This is useful when you are optimizing a photograph for a website. The difference in load time with a JPEG image at 100% quality is significantly different than a JPEG photograph image set to 60% quality (and most of the time, the loss in quality is unnoticeable to the naked eye).

Other File Types:

There are other image file types for the Internet, such as PNG and TIFF. These have their place in the overall spectrum of web design, but for the beginning web designer, the focus should begin with discerning the difference between GIF and JPEG.
About the Author
Eric Head is the webmaster and author of the articles and tutorials featured at http://www.graphicmentor.com. Another great article/tutorial here: http://www.graphicmentor.com/tutorials/softwarebox/index.php Email: graphicmentor@gmail.com