We’re visual by nature and visually driven. We perceive pictures faster than words, so images are scanned first, before the text. It’s important to include images on your station website. Unfortunately, one of the most proven ways to slow down your website (especially on mobile) is to use images that are not sized and compressed properly for online use. This can vary depending on the file format.

Images on the web come in many file formats, such as JPEGs, GIFs, PNGs, and many others. Understanding the basics will give you confidence in being able to decide what format is best in every situation.

Why Do Image File Formats Matter?

Every graphic you see online is an image file. Depending on the file type, they render in different ways and have different file sizes. Each type is intended for a specific use and matters when it comes to appearance, performance, and scalability.

The key is to incorporate all three of these and include files on your station website that are small in file size for fast-loading and without a loss of quality. Your goal should always be to have a superlight website that loads quickly on any device and looks amazing at the same time.

What are the different image file formats?

Image formats are divided into two main categories: raster files and vector files.

Vector graphics use lines, points, and polygons to represent an image. They are best suited for logos and icons. Think of that special logo file that you would send a sign company for a t-shirt, the side of your van, or on a billboard.

Some vector file formats include SVG, PDF, EPS, and AI.

Raster graphics use pixel values within a rectangular grid to represent an image. Unlike vectors, these file types are resolution-dependent and based on their size, meaning they can’t be scaled up without losing quality and becoming pixelated.

Nearly all online images are in raster format, but browsers are starting to be more friendly to some vector formats. Raster file formats include JPEG, PNG, GIF, and WebP.

JPEG is still one of the most used image file types that you’ll see on the internet because of its compression and virtually universal browser/OS support.

PNG files offer much better text readability than JPEG but we’ve found PNG files to be 2-3 times the file size of JPEG files of the same dimensions. This can vary depending on the image editor, compression settings, number of colors used, etc.

GIF files are another image file type falling within the raster format. It constrains the image to a limited palette of only 256 colors. The GIF format is most famous (and mostly used) for animated images because its 8-bit limitation keeps file sizes of animations small and internet-friendly.

Finally, the WebP format was recently developed by Google specifically to provide better compression of images. Switching from JPEG and PNG files to WebP can help save server disk space and significant bandwidth, with up to 35% smaller image files for identical quality.

So, which format do you choose for daily use?

Choosing the best image file format depends on the type of image and your end goal.

You have a lot of options when it comes to what types of images you can use on your website. Pick whichever format enables you to display high-quality images without slowing down your site significantly. Before you upload every image to your station website, ensure the image is sized for the specific application and optimized to its smallest file size without degrading quality.

Optimizing photos for your site isn’t always easy and will likely take some experimentation and testing. But once you get your image optimization process down, your website’s speed will improve as well as your overall user experience.