Saving Work: GIF or JPEG Format

GIF and JPEG. As you well know, these are THE two formats used for the Web. You have no choice! Photoshop allows you to save images directly in these two formats and offers you different options for each of them.

• JPEG format: when you save an image in JPEG format, you can define the compression ratio (for example, a higher compression ratio results in a smaller file and poorer image quality).
  
  
Photoshop also allows you to save progressive JPEGs. These images appear immediately in the browser, before they have finished loading. The displayed image is blurred at the beginning and gradually becomes clearer as downloading proceeds.



Figure 3: the JPEG Options dialog box offers different options for saving JPEG images.


• GIF format: GIF images have the distinctive feature of being able to recognize transparent zones, which allow the colour or the pattern of a background to appear. You can easily save this type of image with Photoshop by making use of the layers feature.
  
  
You can also create an interlaced GIF, the equivalent of a progressive JPEG.



Figure 4: Photoshop allows you to save transparent GIFs.