There are many web pages devoted to describing the relative merits of using JPEG, GIF and PNG images. This page is a short summary of some of the things about these formats while designing the web pages for my department and while writing software to view medical images. This is not meant as a definitive guide, more a basic introduction with a few useful links.
There are three common formats used by web pages: GIF, JPEG and PNG. Each of these formats uses compression techniques to reduce the amount of time required to download images. In general, each has its own strengths and weaknesses:
| Format | Strength | Weakness |
| GIF | Lossless (if < 257 colours) | Maximum of 256 colours, poor compression in situations where there are gradual changes in colours. Patented technology, requires a license: this patent will expire in August 2006. |
| JPEG | Millions of colours | Lossy: sharp edges will appear blurred. Does not support transparency. |
| PNG | Millions of colors, lossless | Not supported by older browsers. |
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