Brendan F.
posted 05/07/2024
Why Different File Types Matter
With the ever-growing support of file types on browsers and the countless different file types to choose from, it can become a job in itself to figure out what suits your needs the most. Each file type comes with its pros and cons, all of them having a place where it is best used and when converting it to a separate file would be best.
Images
Among your Image files, you most commonly see PNG, JPG, and GIF, but there are many more to explore outside of that with GIF, SVG, TIFF, and WEBP. Every Image file type has its place and best-case use for example GIF has support for animation but is limited to 8 bits per pixel.
PNG
PNG or Portable Network Graphics is one of the most common file types you will find and probably the most prevalent saved file on your computer as it is supported by all major browsers and Operating Systems. But why is PNG such a popular file type?
Well to put it simply, they offer us a range of various uses as well as quality images and transparency support but that isn't all. With well over 1.6 million colors supported, you don't have any worry about whether or not the color contrast on your image will remain high-quality. Choosing to Convert to a PNG might be best if you don't mind a larger file size and will allow you to edit them without the loss of quality. Common uses you will find for the file type are as banners or screenshots. Now that you know what makes PNG such a popular and widely used file type, do you think it best suits your needs?
JPEG/JPG
JPG also one of the most commonly used files is a raster image file type, which can make the image worse with resizing as it is a static image. But why does that matter?
Static images, unlike vector images which rely on stretching pixels to fill in extra space when you decide to resize an image, can commonly lead to distortion. You will also find that there is no support for transparency on the file type, as well as text not saving properly due to the lower-quality picture. But there isn't all negativity to using JPG images as they are a great way of reducing the file size of an image while also having great color depth so that you won't lose any coloring within the picture. The file type is supported by all major browsers and Operating Systems making it a great choice for things such as social media posts and new articles where the images won't have words within them. Having now gone over this, could you see yourself converting your next social media post photo to a JPG?
GIF
Those funny short animations you see on social media and the minion posts on your mother's social media page, are commonly GIFs and are one of the most widely used image formatting as they offer the ability to make short animations.
GIFs are a widely used and accepted Image type with support across all major browsers and even libraries for quick use on social media platforms. But how do people make GIFs? Well, a lot of the time you can use a website like ours to convert your other files into GIFs allowing you to make the next mother-approved minion meme. While GIFs offer a wide range of options they also do have their drawbacks, the image is reliant on 8 bits per pixel and a limit of 256 colors within the image but you can still get all the different shades of yellow on your next minion GIF. Next time you decide to convert choose us for a fast and free conversion!
WEBP
WEBP one of the less popular and used file types comes with one of the best compression systems without ruining any of the image quality. But how would WEBP be best suited for your needs?
WEBP was developed as a way of being able to resize your images without losing any of the original images' quality. Currently, most major browsers do not support the file type and it is hard to find an Operating System native image editor that supports the file type leading to a compatibility issue with most users. However, there is a growing amount of applications that accept and use the file type so it remains a beneficial file type for your use. Would you see yourself benefitting from the file type?
TIFF
TIFF or Tagged Image File Format is one of the raster image formats, while not commonly used for posting this file type has grown as a great way of storing and editing images that you would use later for printing especially larger prints like advertising and movie posters.
This is a file type more used by professional photo editors and the most common place to find an image saved to it would be photo editing applications. Files saved in TIFF are great for keeping the original quality of the image as well as not losing any of the image data when compressed. For those who may use this file type of professional photo editing, it supports layers. Not everything is "Up" as you will find that the file type is not largely supported and most major browsers do not support it. I hope you all enjoyed the joke, and next print give it a try and print it as a TIFF.
SVG
Scalable Vector Graphics or SVG is a Vector image file format that unlike other image formats uses a far different method for saving, how would you find a use for it?
SVG's originally developed as a markup language that doesn't rely on pixels but instead uses text to outline the image to save it you can see rendered two-dimensional images using this file type. It allows for small file sizes and loss-free scaling for all your simple illustrations and shapes but would not be ideal for any complex images or drawings. The best use for an SVG would be as a logo or icon as it allows you to save it as a high-quality image. Don't expect universal support for SVG though, while most browsers do support the image type not all do so make sure to check before converting. How would you utilize an SVG file?
Videos
A lot goes into choosing the right format when you need to convert a video as you could need something that has subtitle data or you need something that works well in browsers sometimes even something made for IOS. That is why being able to know what works best for you is important, one project you could use MP4, and for the next, you need to use MOV so with our tool you can convert your MP4 to MOV or maybe you change your mind later and need to transfer that MOV to MKV. So how could each file type be used for you?
MP4
Known by MPEG-4 is the most common file type you will find for videos as most YouTubers will upload their videos on that type and most social media sites accept it as a file type. Most known for providing a high-quality video in a relatively small file size using H.264 and H.365 as its codecs for encoding it will often take more time than most other file types to encode and decode as well as being difficult to edit. But with it being a high-quality and versatile file type with universal compatibility it is ole' reliable for converting. How would you see MP4 being useful for you?
MOV
Developed by Apple for use in their Quicktime player it has become one of the most versatile and compatible file types, especially in film and video editing as it will store data such as subtitles, audio, and special effects. This makes it far better for people working in video editing and one of the most popular to work with. Though its large file size will take up more room than the likes of MP4 or WEBM it sees quite the quality reduction when compressing the video too. Though it may have a larger file size the quality more than makes up for it and the ability to have multiple tracks as well as keep video data when saving is a large part of why the larger file size doesn't turn people away. Could you see your next project being converted from MP4 to MOV? If so head over to converting.to to convert it over!
WEBM
Like its counterpart WEBP, WEBM is well suited for small videos that can be quickly loaded onto sites through your browser. While it has quick loading and almost universal compatibility with browsers most major ones having picked it up, there will be the drawback of a lowered video quality due to its smaller file size. This type of file would be best suited for a small video at the top of your webpage that doesn't rely heavily on quality. Did you know that WEMB is also HTML5 compatible? Would this be useful for your projects in the future?
MKV
Short for Matroska MKV is a high-quality file type that offers you the ability to store audio and subtitles within the file while offering a smaller file size than most! It is also one of the only open-source file types available making it an easy choice for those who are interested in knowing how the file type they are using works from the inside out. Did you know that MKV can also store data alongside the video? The versatility of the file type is limitless sometimes but this comes with some cons as it is not playable on all software and not all websites accept it as an uploadable file type. It would be a good option for those looking for a high-quality open-source file type that can become extremely complex when working with it.
AVI
Developed by Microsoft in the 1900's it is one of the oldest file types around having been made to be adaptable and versatile but over the years it has not allowed for as much versatility as you would see with MP4 and MKV. While still boasting some of the best audio and video quality it comes with extremely large and large quality loss while compressing it, while growing its importance these days it is one of the video file types that still lacks the ability to save data for subtitles. So boot up those old DVD drives because it is still seen as the best file type for DVD recordings!
FLV
One of the least relevant file types it was designed to be used by Flash player, its file types are around the size of MP4 and quality is the same too it is not supported on IOS and is not widely supported by websites or browsers either making it one of the least used file types but with all of that it does have positives to it as there are videos that require flash players and to be edited with FLV so having this option comes in hand! How could you see yourself using FLV in the future?
Summary
Having gone over all of the different types of files offered on converting.to and what their individual use would be, to include the pros and cons we hope to show why sometimes you should go from MOV to MP4 or JPG to PNG but on other occasions this could be a great source to show you reasons why staying with your current file type would be the best decision to. What file type could you see yourself converting next?
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