There’s a lot of types of files out there, and JPG and PNG are the most common. In the first sign looks the same, but gets a little confused because have a lot of differences between this two.
“But, if I’m hiring someone to do some design for me they should know and send to me the right file, right?” you ask. Let’s say you order a banner to be posted on Facebook and the same banner will be print, so the designer should send to you two types of files: PNG and JPG, which one goes to Facebook and which one will you send to the print shop? Or if you hire someone to do a logo and you just got a JPG? Will you know it is right or not? That’s why we need to know: what is, when to use it, how to use it, what is not good, and CMY or RGB. So are you ready?
What is it?
PNG was created to replace GIF in 1995.
JPG was created to make easy the storage and distribution of files in the WEB.
How to use it?
PNG has an amazing feature “transparency” and other formats don’t have. Besides that, is possible to save a file without losing quality. So if you are going to use several times, edit, etc… is good to use the PNG.
JPG compresses the data and because of that you can have a small file (a PNG file can have 2MB and the same file in JPG can have 800kb), so because of that is the perfect file to share across the web or upload to a website (but be careful, they have so much less quality than the PNG).
When to use it?
PNG has the transparency and is high quality so if you need to upload a small icon in your website you need to use the PNG, so you will not have a “white square” and will have quality. Also is the best to use in social media like Facebook, Instagram, etc…
JPG is small than a PNG file, so you can use the JPG to upload a picture in your own website for example, if you do not need the transparency or if don’t have small elements, the JPG is the perfect file.
What is not good?
PNG is not good to upload to websites because is so much larger than a JPG, so takes more time to load a page.
JPG is not good to print small details, such as texts, books, magazines, etc…
CMYK or RGB?
PNG is only possible to save in RGB, so is perfect to use on the web or some kind of specific prints.
JPG you can have both CMYK and RGB this will depend on what you need (if you want to know more about RGB and CMYK you can read here).
PNG files can be perfect to upload in social media but awful to your own website, and the JPG can be great to print a big banner but not so great to print an ad in a magazine. When we know the differences we can be able to improve the quality of our brand.
If you are looking for a designer to create an amazing work, contact me!
See you in the next post o/
