GIF Format GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. It is the predominantgraphics format on the Web, one that all browsers and helper applicationsrecognize. The GIF format uses the LZW compression scheme, which reduces file size withoutloss of image quality. GIF files can be displayed inline as a component within a Web page rather thanas a graphic that launches in a separate window. A variant of the GIF format,GIF89a, lets you assign one color as transparent, so that the background colorof your graphic is the same as the color of the browser window.
Readers can view the pagewhile the rest of the image is downloading.
JPEG Format JPEG is the acronym for the Joint Photographic Experts Group. This groupdeveloped the 24-bit JPEG format especially for photographic reproduction. JPEG offers a range of compression options, with a trade-off between imagequality and file size. Higher compression results in more information about theimage being lost. JPEG does not support transparency or interlacing, and inline JPEG files arenot supported by all Web browsers, though they are supported by Netscape 1.1and 2.0.