Painting the Web

JPEG

Most photos online are JPEG, and this isn't likely to change anytime soon. Even with the introduction of PNG, the use of JPEG is so tightly ingrained in the human experience that it will take years before people start making the move to PNG.

The JPEG format is actually quite effective for photos. Even at moderately higher levels of compression, most photos look good in web pages, at least for relatively small photo sizes. It takes a lot of compression—and a larger image—before a photo will show degradation visible to most people. In addition, many digital cameras natively store images in JPEG format to save room on the disk. Even if a camera supports RAW format (where all image information is maintained with the image) or TIFF, chances are it will also support JPEG. Some cameras even allow the owners to specify the JPEG quality in order to control space use.

ora: RAW or TIFF?

Speaking of cameras and capturing images as JPEG, given a choice between RAW and JPEG or TIFF and JPEG in your digital camera, I would recommend RAW or TIFF. You won't get as many pictures, but you're going to kick yourself when you get a really great shot and it's been saved on disk in a highly compressed, lossy JPEG.

The only time you might want to use JPEG is when you want to print images directly from the camera. JPEG images are both web and print ready, unlike RAW, which must be manipulated first. An alternative approach supported by several cameras (such as my own Nikon D200) is to pick both JPEG and ...