File extensions let you know what program the file was created with and what program is most suitable to open them. Files created with a certain program will have specific properties, depending on the software that was used to make them. So, if you try to open a file with the wrong program, it may not work properly or even crash.
File types:
JPEG - stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group and is a compressed image file format. Unlike GIF images, JPEG images are not limited to a certain amount of color and therefore can be udes for compressing photographic images. However, JPEG is a lossy format, which means that some of the image's quality will be lost when the image is compressed.
GIF - stands for Graphics Interchange Format and is a compressed image file format. They are based on indexed colors, which is at most 256 colors. This reduces the file size and they can be quickly transmitted over a network or Internet. They are great for small icons and animeted images, but lack the range of color for high-quality photos.
PSD - stands for Photoshop Document and is a layered file created in Adobe PhotoShop. PSD allows you to work on the images' individual layers. You can use Photoshop to flatten the layers and change the images' format to .JPG, .GIF, .TIFF etc. Once the format is changed you can't work on individual layers and the image cannot be changed back to PSD.
TIFF - stands for Tagged Image File Format. Created in the 1980s, TIFF was meant to be a universal image format across different computer platforms. It can handle color depths ranging from 1-bit to 24-bit. Since it was introduced, people have been making changes to improve it. Recently, JPEG became the most universal image format.
PNG - is a compressed raster graphic format. It was introduced in 1994 and includes many benefits of both JPEG and GIF formats. Unlike JPEG files, it uses lossless compression and, unlike GIF files, it supports 24-bit color, so a PNG image can include over 16 million colors. PNG format also supports an alpha channel, or the "RGBA" color space, which provides 256 levels of transparency.
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