Saving Filetypes - Roareye Black

Microsoft Paint is not the best program to be saving your work in. If you just want to save it for editting later, then the BMP filetype that it saves in is usually the best file to use. However BMP files are usually not allowed online, and they also take up alot of filespace. To get the best results from your artwork, to show online for the best example, is to convert the files into a web usable file. The main types are JPG, GIF and PNG.

JPG - This first image was saved as a JPG and then converted through Adobe Fireworks MX to show the transparency. You'll notice how the image quality is faded behind a wall of mess, ruining the entire image. JPG saves into a small size by compressing everything, including image quality, to give you a smaller filesize. Unfortunately, this effect is made even in professional graphics programs (Though to a lesser degree) and as such, it should be known never to save in JPG.

GIF - This image is a GIF file. GIF files aren't the smallest of the three but it saves cleanly. On artwork with few colours it gives no distortion and loads instantly on webpages. The problem is with MS Paint, when it saves as GIF, it fades your colours out (AS you can see from the image) and ruins your colouring quality. Through a professional program, you can save GIFs without colour distortion until you reach over 256 colours (Depending on the GIF setup it's saving to. 256 Adaptive is usually best, or 256 WebSnap), where it will do the same as MS Paint has done here and will nullify your colours into tones it deems more acceptable.

PNG - This final image is a PNG, like the other two it was run through Adobe Fireworks MX for the transparency. PNG files will save your artwork as web-usable files with no loss of colour or quality making them considerably better than the other two filetypes. They do, however, use more RAM from PCs. This means that older computers (And slower net connections) struggle to load all of the information, which means that they're more prone to seeing the dreaded red X. The problems for MS Paint are small for this filetype. It will save perfectly, however only MS Paint on Operating Systems from Microsoft Windows XP onwards can actually save as PNG. If you are working on Windows 98, 95 or 32 then you will not be able to save as a PNG.

It should be noted that MS Paint, regardless of which filetype you choose, cannot save transparencies. So any file saves you make in MS Paint will have a coloured (Or white) background to them. The only way to remove these is with a professional or semi-professional program. Below is a selection of the best free programs you can download. Unfortunately, Adobe FireWorks MX is a program you must buy, and can cost up to £800 (That's about $1500) so it's not the best choice for beginning artists.

Free GIF/JPEG Conversion Software
PV. 2.78 Submitted By Helios Inferno
OmniFormat Submitted By Helios Inferno
Fromatti Submitted By Helios Inferno
Irfanview Submitted By Jinnaiguy
GraphicsGale Submitted By Joe the Echidnafox