What Does “JPEG” Mean?

There are many different digital image formats which each have differences, images quality and purposes. The most commenly used format using the lossy compression method is JPG. The compression of the image can be modified which allows a tradeoff inbetween the image quality and the size of the image. JPG is short for JPEG which is an acronym for “Joint Photographic Experts Group” and is most used format for recent digital cameras.

Most important format for pictures

The JPEG has a specific compression algorithm which is perfect for photographs and paintings of realistic scenes with only slight and smooth tone and color variations. It is also good and popular for web usage,as the size of the image is important.

However JPEG is not the most appropriate format for line drawings and other iconic graphics. Due to it’s contrast between the pixels of the image it is not ideal and causes a blurness impression. Such images are best saved in lossless graphics format : TIFF, GIF or PNG

Use of JPEG

JPEG format uses a lossy compression method which is good if you want a good quality image and low data size but reduces the image fidelity. Therefore it should not be used for images which should reproduce and exact copy of the date. Such as in certain medical or other scientific imaging applications.

Furthermore it is not a good format for documents which will be edited and modified several times. As each time the image is saved it will get compressed and lose some quality. To avoid this you can simply edit the image in a lossless format, and once the image is completly finished it can then be saved into JPEG to reduce the data size. The file extensions of JPEG are .jpg or .jpeg, although .jpe, .jiff and .jif also work. And it can support images sizes up to 65535×65535