Gif Vs Image. Which is better?

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for brands to be noticed and stand out in a sea of digital content.

Hence, it has become a tough job to grab your audience’s attention with your content. So, visuals are not a luxury anymore. They are an integral part of any successful content strategy.

Graphics can have a huge impact on how your site’s content is perceived. According to Twitter, tweets that include photos get an average of 35% more ReRetweets Also, Social Media Strategist Jeff Bullas reported that Facebook posts with photos witness an average 37% increase in engagement. Buzzsumo also found that posts with images get 2.3 times as much engagement than posts without them.

So, it’s easy to deduce that the use of images is imperative for the creation of engaging content.

However, if you want to use the best images on your website, then it’s not enough to know how to pick images relevant to your content. There are many other aspects to this subject, which you must be familiar with. Let’s begin with image formats.

Images can have many extensions. Here is how they differ from one another

There are many types of images, including logos, photographs, animations, and line-art. You can make a beautiful image look grainy and fuzzy by choosing an inappropriate extension for it. To ensure your website looks great and loads fast, you need to save your images correctly. Here are the most common image extensions that are in use today—

 

  • JPEG or JPG—

JPEG is a compressed file extension best suited for photographs. JPEG files can undergo compression to become small enough for use in websites. JPEG preserves the image’s basic appearance and crispness. The JPEG file uses “lossy” compression, which means that some quality is lost as the image is compressed. JPEG files can support 16 million colors which are impressive in comparison to GIF’s limited 256- color compatibility. This makes them the ideal format for large photos printed in flyers, brochures, and books. You may find that an uploaded image appears blurry initially, but it then becomes crisp and clear. So, JPEG is better for complex images.

 

  • PNG—

.PNG file type is used most often in digital design projects. Portable Network Graphic (.PNG) tends to be larger than the other formats. However, it preserves hard edges and can take high amounts of colors. They also display individual pixels in a more complete manner. Images that have text or graphics with hard edges and elements that need transparent backgrounds, such as logos, are the best uses of PNG.

 

  • GIF—

Soon after CompuServe created GIFs, they became extremely popular. GIFs are easy to compress or sent across the internet. They are ideal for creating simple images such as icons using limited colors.

GIFs will not lose their data as they use lossless compression. These files have a low resolution, so they upload faster. GIF files are smaller in size which makes them ideal for websites that need simple images like logos, line art, and basic cartoons. They are also used for animation and are frequently seen on social media sites. You can use GIFs to create graphics with only 256 colors.  While you wouldn’t use them for graphics with gradients, they support transparency.

While all of the above— JPEG/JPG, GIF, and PNG are acceptable for use on the internet, it’s not recommended to use GIFs in printed forms, such as in documents, because it is smaller and will compromise with quality.

Besides, JPEG is ideal for photographs. On the other hand, GIF works well for line-art, logos, etc. using limited colors.

What is .JPG? How is it different from .JPEG?

JPG simply refers to the JPEG format that is available on your computer. It’s exactly the same format with no fundamental difference.

Then why is it that you can find references to both the terms?

The term JPG was used in Windows’ older days. Nonetheless, it is still being used today.

Older Windows operating systems had a 3 letter limit for file names such as JPG. This meant you couldn’t add that extra “E”. You could save your images in JPEG on Mac or Linux, but this provision was not available on Windows.

We’ve seen many upgrades to Windows OS over the years. And this means we have no access to JPEG files.

Although the format hasn’t changed in any way, Windows has modified the way it labels files. This is why JPEG/JPG image confusion exists. Many people have become so familiar with JPG that they continue to refer to it this way even today. But there’s nothing wrong in doing that. You must have noticed that the JPG option is still available next to the JPEG format file when saving an image to Windows.

Which image extension should you use for reduced website page load times?

Are you aware of the many effects a simple file format can have on your website’s look and feel? Yes, the impact is profound. You will be surprised to know that you can increase or decrease your site’s load time with a simple change in all of its image files’ extensions. 

Your extension choice should make it easy for you to upload images to your website. However, it shouldn’t increase the site weight so pages can load quickly.

Thankfully, there are only a few file formats that you need to be concerned about as far as digital content is concerned. As discussed above, digital use is limited to three file types: .PNG, .GIF and .JPEG/.JPG. Choosing the right file extension can help you avoid having to modify files after they are uploaded.

Here is how different file formats impact page load time

  • JPEG/JPG—

At the moment, .JPG is the standard “go-to” file format for content creators. The uses for which .JPG is preferred over a .PNG are much more limited. Complex images without text are best suited for .JPG. And since it selectively deletes elements from a photo, .JPG speeds up page load times. This is very useful for large, detailed photos that otherwise would take a long time to load. If you have elements in the image with sharp edges or straight edges, pixelation will be very evident in them. Text will become difficult to read, especially if the font size is too small. For extra detailed images without text or any other hard-edged graphics, it’s best to use.JPG.

 

  • GIF—

The .GIF file format is the fastest loading counterpart of .PNG, but there’s one catch: images must be less than 256 colors. This limitation limits designers in a way that is not obvious. This file format should be used only for low-resolution images. The .GIF format does not allow elements such as photographs or graphics with gradients. However, elements such as banners or buttons in solid colors are great because they load much faster than the PNG format. They also retain all the cool features such as transparency and hard edges. Animation is another great feature that only.GIFs have access to. You can create a graphic using a single play or short looping animation. This does not require any plugins as it is only an image file.

 

  • PNG—

It also has a fast load time that allows you to use the file online. It can also be saved to transparency. If transparency is placed on an image, we can use all of its elements without having to alter background colors or other details. This is why major websites save their logos as.PNGs. It doesn’t have to be updated every time they update their site.

Can an image extension impact customer engagement? Yes, it can! And here is the best image extension to use to make your content more engaging

The most engaging file extension is GIF without question. GIFs have been around since the dawn of the internet. However, their popularity has risen in recent years due to the widespread adoption of high-speed internet and the growing use of messaging apps as well as meme culture. GIFs are becoming more popular, particularly among younger generations. This is why brands are trying to find the best way to use them.

GIF’s popularity is due to three factors. GIFs allow people to express their emotions quickly when words are not enough. It conveys identity through pop culture references. It capitalizes on meme culture, which constantly creates new references that are then incorporated into our larger digital culture.

GIFs are able to compress more information than text and still images into something that can be shared easily. This is an advantage GIFs enjoyed in the early days before the advent of online video. GIFs with a single emotion are the most popular. You can find a GIF that conveys your emotions, whether it is joy, sadness, shock, or both. The expressive and emotive nature of a looping animated photo is a huge draw for consumers and tech companies, as well as brands.

The bottom line is that all these file extensions exist because people need and use them. None of them is superior or inferior to the other. Your project or purpose will determine the extension you use for your image files. So, factor in your specific needs and determine the best image extension for satisfactory project output.



Mogi’s Proprietary Video/Image Tech

Mogi I/O (www.mogiio.com) is an AI-enabled Video & Image Delivery SaaS that helps Content Platforms to Improve Customer Engagement by enabling Buffer free Streaming Experience for the user through a patented multi-CDN upstream architecture called Mogi Streaming Engine, Enhanced experience through quality enhancement and compression of up to 50% both during transcoding itself and Deeper user insights through Advanced Video Analytics.

Mogi’s Core Image Tech provides up to 80% lossless compression on images, making them extremely light for easy loading. It also auto-resizes images based on the screen size of the device to better optimize the image quality and the view . Finally, the smart crop also removes non-prominent areas from the images. Mogi’s Core Image Tech can be integrated seamlessly with your existing system. You can either choose your CDN or our CDN and we would work, either way, compressing and optimizing images on the fly. Clients have got up to 4x faster website load time, and 50% savings on bandwidth and CDN bills through lighter images.

Mogi’s Video Tech solutions are available end-to-end (Video Transcoding + Video Player + Mogi Streaming Engine (Multi-CDN delivery) + DRM + Video Analytics) or you can use individual products from the entire suite like just the Video Transcoding. Mogi also provides white-label end-to-end plug n play solutions for OTT and Edtech Platforms, with Web, Android and iOS apps as well as a dedicated CMS for OTT and LMS for EdTech.

One of the best individual products we have is our Transcoding Architecture, which is a unique cluster-based process, does the transcoding within 30% of the content length. The transcoding architecture’s result includes a highly compressed video of up to 50% with no loss in quality, and if you choose quality enhancement, a 40% compression with the enhanced video quality.

The pricing for Transcoding is very competitive as well, and along with it you get a highly compressed output with the same or higher quality. This means not only is your contractual pricing is low due to competitive pricing, but your bandwidth consumption also reduces, and user experiences increase multifold. It’s a win-win for all of us (Users, Clients, Mogi).

Contact us now to make your website load faster, rank Higher on SEO, and reduce bounce rates – susheel.srinivas@mogiio.com

 

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