A very powerful format, BMP offers multiple degrees of compression while maintaining color vibrancy. Unfortunately, specifications for the format are hard to come by, and programmers must scrape together third-party information. Theoretically, the human eye couldn't see the details to begin with. Lossy compression eliminates fine degrees of color, stray pixels, and other fine details. Unfortunately, the removal of all these invisible details sometimes has a visible effect on image quality.
Many software programs can convert from one graphics file format to another.
Video Formats Apple developed the Quicktime format for the Macinosh. Now also available for Windows, Quicktime is an extremely flexible format capable of handling everything from stills to movies to broadcast-quality sound. More than just a media player, Quicktime can also be used for editing. It's available for free over the Internet. The MPEG format was developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group.