Photos

Photos are visual images from photographic film or digital images. These images are usually taken by a camera, and can be used to inform and direct the audience. When writing for the web, photos play a key part to attract readers. Photos heighten the audience's attention, thus making the information more credible and professional. It allows web users can better understand a particular concept, thus making photos clear, interesting, and memorable.

Types of Photos

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Notice how this high compressed JPEG results in the photo being fuzzy.

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Using a low compressed JPEG ratio results in the image being sharper, crisp, and clean.

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An example of a GIF animation. Notice how the image continuously loops.

Pictures on sites should be high quality. Pixilated and high contrast photos create dullness to the audience. Using photo editing programs such as, Photoshop, will fix the photos. Photos ought to be checked daily in case they are broken and deleted. Broken and deleted images ruin the cohesiveness of the site and your credibility.

Formatting pictures has numerous file formats; however, the two most common are JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP.

JPEG

Images commonly known as Joint Photographic Experts Group.

JPEGs is typically the most utilized format for graphic images. Typically images that are digital and color photography need to use this compression format. JPEG compression contains full color or gray scale. JPEG compression format possess a large range of colors too. JPEGs capture the "realistic" scenes in the images. According to Sarah Horton, "The more a photo is squeezed with JPEG compression, the more quality the photo loses." Saving an original image is strongly cautioned. Once a photo has been tweaked, the original image is lost and cannot be retrieved.

Advantages of JPEG

• JPEG download at quicker rates.
• JPEG has a larger color range than GIF.
• JPEG creates better images for professionally done images.

GIF

Images commonly known as Graphics Interchange Format.

Majority of graphics on the web support the GIFs, which is because they are compact. GIF compression is typically 8-bit. The small bit rate causes the the file compression format to only support 256 colors, instead of millions of colors like JPEG.

GIF images consist of a set images that are displayed in a set order. They tend to be moving graphic (or animated) images that loop endlessly.According to Sarah Horton, "GIFs lose compression to keep the file size at a minimum without destroying the photo's quality." Typically, GIFs can seen throughout the web, yet they are commonly seen on Internet forums and media coverage blogs--creating comic relief. Make sure that the GIF being used is professional and connects with what the site's central theme or message is.

Advantages of GIFs

• GIF images are commonly supported on the web.
• GIF images look better online.

PNG

Images commonly known as Portable Network Graphic.

PNGs serves as an alternative file compression format to the GIF. Designed typically for the web, these images contain a large range of colors and look sophisticated. PNGs does best with art, text, and logos. While these images take up less space than GIF, they tend to load slower. These images are known to be inconsistent on different web browsers, especially Internet Explorer, which does not support PNG.

Advantages of PNG

• PNG images save as smaller file size.
• PNG images are not as lossy as JPEG.
• PNG images can have text descriptions, thus making them easier to find in web searches.

See Also

• Scanability
• Expertise
• Design

References

1. Lynch, Patrick J., Horton, Sarah. "Web Style Guide, 3rd Edition". Web Style Guide. (2009). Print. Retrieved 12 Nov 2012.
2. George, James. "GIF, JPG, and PNG - What is the difference". 11 Aug 2011. Web. Retrieved 12 Nov 2012.