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Everyone wants to know how to create great content. A simple Google search will lead you to dozens of articles that claim they know the secret to achieving this, or videos of digital influencers consulting on this topic. Throughout our search to find various techniques to create sought-after content, one thing has revealed itself to be crystal clear— visuals are everything.
Igor Ovsyannykov from Creative Market says that, “In the competitive online world, more often than not, words are not enough. If you really want to take your website to the next level, adding a compelling image tremendously helps.” But as she continues to explain, “choosing the right visuals also means saving photos in their right format.” In order to create a clean, crisp, and compelling visual it is crucial to be aware of the various image file formats available. Today, many people who are bloggers, marketers, and business owners do not have a background in graphic design, and therefore, are not familiar with how to properly create and save files. And yet, they are constantly working on digital platforms that require at least basic knowledge of this.
Whether you’re looking for a way to enhance your content or are just entering a profession that requires you to work on digital platforms, it’s important to familiarize yourself with how to correctly format image files if you want to create great content. Now, you might notice that this content looks familiar, and it is, because we’ve spoken about this exact topic at least once or twice before. Why? Because it truly so important to know and will make your life a hell of a lot easier. We promise. With that said, moving on. Below, we’ve put together a list of the most popular image formats so that you’ll be a wizard at correctly formatting image files in no time.
Step 1: Understand the difference between vector vs. raster graphics.
Step 2: Memorize the popular image formats and grasp a great understanding of them. See below:
JPEG
JPEG is the most popular and widely used file format. It saves the file to a smaller size, allowing it to be easily transferable in a short amount of time. This also makes JPEGs extremely web-friendly for websites and blog use. In turn, because the photo is minimized when it saves, it loses some of its information. This makes JPEGs unfit for graphics that display text or solid shapes, or ones that need to be turned into animations.
TIFF
TIFF files are widely used by photographers, designers, and the print industry. That’s because TIFF files produce high-quality imagery that is easily transferrable to print materials. This file format is most commonly used to create layers and layout pages in programs like InDesign.
EPS
EPS is a commonly used file format because it’s very flexible. It is the primary file format of vectors, which allow the user to scale graphics to any size without suffering pixilation. This format is also compatible with photo editing programs and prints very well.
PDF is the simplest and most recognized file format out there. It’s used to save both imagery and text in a page document style, allowing it to be compatible with almost all programs and applications when transferred and opened.