Which File Format Should I Use - Digital Media - MIS 4710 at University of Oklahoma

Graphics come in many flavors but not all formats are suitable for all purposes. How do you know which is best? In general, there are formats suitable for printing and those for on-screen viewing or online publishing. Within each group there are also formats that are better than others for the same task.

This simple chart outlines the best use for several common formats. Match the format to your job either by starting with graphics in that format or by converting other artwork to the desired format.

Format:	Designed for:	Top choice for:
BMP	Screen display under Windows
EPS	Printing to PostScript printers	High resolution printing of illustrations
GIF	Screen display, especially the Web	Online publishing of illustrations, screen shots
JPEG, JPG	Screen display, especially the Web	Online publishing of photographic images
PICT	Screen display on Macintosh or printing to non-postscript printer
TIFF, TIF	Printing to PostScript printers	High resolution printing of images
WMF	Screen display under Windows or printing to non-postscript printer.	This is the default file format for Microsoft clipart.

Use GIF and JPG for screen display and online publishing. Although other formats for screen display and online publishing are in development, at present GIF and JPG are the standards.

Use EPS and TIFF for print publishing, especially when submitting files to professional offset printing services. If all your printing is sent to your desktop printer, you may be able to use other formats including CGM, BMP and PCX with acceptable results; however, for high-resolution output EPS and TIFF will provide the least hassles and the best quality.