This document provides information on different types of digital file formats for graphics, including raster graphics (made up of pixels/bitmaps), vector graphics (made up of vectors/paths), and various specific file formats like JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, PSD, AI, FLA, and WMF. It discusses advantages and disadvantages of each in terms of uses, quality, file size, sharing capabilities, and more. It also covers topics like image capture methods, compression, and optimizing files.

1. Digital Graphics
File Formats
Hannah Woollaston

2. Raster Graphics
• Raster graphics are made up of Bitmaps, these are made up of pixels, then the pixels record
the data and information that makes up the image. Because raster graphic images are made
up of bitmaps, they have a fixed resolution, unfortunately this means that resizing a
bitmapped image can result in distortion and pixilation, this can make an image or graphic
look un-professional.
• More information on Bitmaps and Megapixels…
Cameras often mention megapixels, this is telling you how many million pixels or ‘bits’ the image
is being separated into, the more pixels the better because this makes the image clearer and less
bitty, the clearer the image, the better. Megapixels and bitmaps means the image is split into
millions of the little squares, which each, in turn records the information of what size/colour etc.
each part of the image should be, as an example, when you use an image from the internet it can
sometimes become pixilated because it has been compressed when downloaded to less
megapixels to make it easy to view/ use/ download.

3. Vector Graphics
• Vector graphics are made up of vectors, which can also be known as strokes and paths, are
defined by a start and end points which contain curves, angles and points between each
point. From the information contained within these vectors, the paths within the graphic can
become any shape it needs to, for example, a square, a curvy shape, a triangle or even just a
line. Vectors can be scaled both small and big, this is because vectors loose no detail or
definition when scaled to different sizes, this enables vector graphics to be very flexible and a
popular choice for business’ as vector graphics can be made small on leaflets or big on a
posters.

4. Raster Graphics

5. JPEG
Stands For Joint Photographic Experts Group.
Used For/Example JPEGS are one of the most common choices
for photographers as most cameras are set to
use this format as default. It can also be
found on web formats, people come into
contact with JPEG files quite often as photos
on Facebook are saved as them and photos
on phones are saved as JPEGS to.
Advantage -JPEGS are universally used so a file saved as
a JPEG can be accessible to a lot of people,
making it a popular format for people to
share things on.
-Because it is compressed, it is easy to open
online, even if the internet connection is
slow.
Disadvantage -JPEGS loose quality each time you open and
edit them as each time they are compressed
and recompressed.
-JPEGS images are not the best quality as they
are made up of bitmaps and pixels so they

6. TIFF
Stands For Tagged Image File Format
Used For/Example Tiff files are popular with graphic
designers as its used for desktop
publishing .
Advantage -Have the option to keep the quality of the
image, even when opening, closing and
editing the file, this is called ‘Lossless
compression’
-It can save multiple paged documents in a
single file which, for example, is good for
people working on designing magazines.
Disadvantage -Tiff files are not yet universally used and
are normally only used within the field of
graphic design which makes it difficult to
share the file.
-Tiff files get bigger each time as they
don’t compress, this is an example of the
constant battle between quality/file size.
This also means that the files are difficult

7. GIF
Stands For Graphic Interchange Format
Used For/Example They are used for short digital animations,
maybe to make a document more
interesting and engaging, they are just a
set of often JPEG images that are played
on loop to make it look like a video.
Advantage - Easy to use and find.
- Good for basic newsletters and un-professional
documents
Disadvantage -Often poor quality and can be jumpy
when moving from image to image in the
loop.

8. BMP
Stands For Bitmap Image File
Used For/Example Bitmap images files are similar to JPEG
and TIFF files, particularly TIFF files
because it grows in size.
Advantage -BMP files are reasonably universal so can
be shared with people quite easily
because it accessible to most people.
-BMP files also don’t loose quality in
compression so they retain the standard
they were first created with.
Disadvantage -BMP files are becoming slightly outdated
so they are becoming a less popular choice
which means it will become difficult for
people to share their work on this file
type.
-big file size because of lossless
compression

9. Vector Graphics

10. PSD
Stands For Photoshop Document
Used For/Example Used for editing/creating images, creating fonts etc.
Advantage -lots of tools and techniques available, this helps to
make editing the picture easier and makes the final
image look more professional.
-another advantage would be that it offers the option
to save a a PSD file so it remembers the layers of each
image and the effects applied to them so you can carry
on working on image.
Disadvantage -Only people who have Photoshop can open
Photoshop files, this makes it difficult to share work
with others, it also means you can only work on PSD
files on computer that have photoshop.
- PSD files can be quite large, so take up a lot of room
on memory sticks etc.

11. AI
Stands For Adobe Illustrator Art
Used For/Example Adobe illustrator art is commonly used by
businesses for designing logos and posters
etc.
Advantage - Designs can be made big or small without loosing
quality because they are not made up of bitmaps.
(this relates to the example above).
- AI files do not loose quality each time when saved
and edited.
Disadvantage - Because AI files do not loose quality the files grow
in size each time, so take up a lot of room.
- AI files can only be opened/edited on computers
which have Adobe Illustrator art, which makes it
difficult to share work.

12. FLA
Stands For Flash File
Used For/Example Used to create animations and games.
Advantage - FLA files produce high quality
games/files but with a small file size so
they don’t take up loads of room.
- You can include sound and video in FLA
files, so this helps to make the
animation or game more professional.
Disadvantage - Not completely universal yet but they
are getting there.
- Can take a while to get use o how to
use the program.

13. WMF
Stands For Windows Metafile
Used For/Example Used for logos, however they are not use
by professionals as it is not the best
program to use.
Advantage - Can be scaled big or small as it does not
loose quality because it is a vector.
- They are good for making logos
because of the point above.
Disadvantage - WMF are not used by professionals this
is because it is not the best out there to
use, this is because the tools for
creating and editing are not as good as
other programs.
- Because the files are not compressed
they grow in size each time.

14. File Format Capture
and Optimising

15. Compression
Definition Compression happens on some file types
so that the files don’t get bigger and
bigger and take up too much room, lossy
compression is a way information on a
particular file is striped out to make the
file smaller.
Advantage -by compressing this stops the files from
getting bigger each time they are edited
and opened, this makes them easier to
open/download.
-compressing the files can make them
pixelated, this can be beneficial because it
can stop people from stealing the images.
Disadvantage -lossy compression means the information
is striped out of the image, this lowers the
quality of the image significantly.

16. Image Capture
Method Scanner
How is it used for image capture of
graphics
By placing the objects you want to be scanned into the
scanner, and scanning them, they then become
available to edited/use on the computer.
Method Camera
How is it used for image capture of
graphics
Cameras are used to capture imagery by pressing the
capture button, the shutter is then exposed and the
image is captured, the images can then be uploaded
onto a computer by either using a cable or inserting
the SD card in to the computer.
Method Graphics Tablet
How is it used for image capture of
graphics
Images can be drawn onto a graphics tablet, they
normally have a stylus that acts like a pen to draw
with.

17. Optimising
Why would you optimise? Images are optimised so that they can be
viewed easily online, it is also to ensure
they work for the format.
How can you optimise? -SGVO is a good tool or optimising vector
images, as it minifies the SVG files
(scalable vector graphics).
-As for raster files, reducing the number of
bytes and RGBA colours this can make the
file size smaller.
Advantage to optimising -You can make the images less than 500
pixels wide so they don’t take long to load.
-don’t take up as much memory.
Disadvantage to optimising - Can lower the quality of the image.
- Easier for people to steal from online
because it makes the images easy to
download.