Introducing “CNB ImageGuide”
Should you save your image as PNG or JPG? ImageGuide is a program which helps you choose the best format..
Web images are usually saved in either .JPG or .PNG format, but unfortunately most people have no idea which is best for their picture.
Top: Photos should be saved as JPG. Bottom: Simple images should be saved as PNG. Both: Notice the lost detail and corruption when the wrong format is used.
The very simplest rule of thumb is:
- If it’s a photograph, use .JPG
- Otherwise use .PNG
Graphs, charts, and screenshots are often (incorrectly) saved as .JPG even though as PNG they would look better and be smaller. An extreme example is this image of every color. Saved as .PNG, it’s only 58KB. As .JPG, it is 1.1MB — 19 times larger and even at that size it looks blocky compared to the PNG version.
Unfortunately, even many surprisingly knowledgeable website authors seem to lack this knowledge.
In order to help people make the most of their pictures and their time, I’ve written ImageGuide — a program which aims to make it absolutely as easy as possible to pick the best image format, or even choose for you. You can download it here ForMortals.com.