help_gifvsjpeg

GIF vs. JPEG: Which to Use

Graphics in their natural state are too big to be quickly downloaded over the Web. In order to increase the loading time of your website's pages you must compress your images. The standard compression formats used for artwork on the web are .GIF and .JPEG.

A good rule to go by is to always save your photographs as JPEGs. Photographs have many colors in them which increase the file size of the images. In order to obtain the best quality for your photograph you should save them as JPEGs at about a medium to high quality setting.

You should save images that have less colors in the .GIF format. Usually things like logos, line art, graphics and sometimes small animations are saved in the .GIF format.

To learn more about GIFs and JPEGs check out these handy sites:

Tips-Tricks - A great site that explains in English the differences between a JPEG and a GIF.

Web Monkey - Learn from the monkey! A web developers resource for HTML and other goodies.