When sharing images, you'll most often encounter JPEG, PNG, and GIF formats. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, making them suitable for different types of images.

JPEG (.jpg / .jpeg)

  • Best For: Photographs and complex images with millions of colors.
  • Pros: Excellent compression, resulting in small file sizes. Widely supported.
  • Cons: Lossy compression (some data is discarded, quality degrades slightly with each save). Does not support transparency.

PNG (.png)

  • Best For: Web graphics requiring transparency (logos, icons), images with text, screenshots.
  • Pros: Lossless compression (no quality loss). Supports transparency (alpha channel).
  • Cons: Generally larger file sizes than JPEGs for photographic images.

GIF (.gif)

  • Best For: Simple animations, images with large areas of flat color (like logos or diagrams, though PNG is often better now).
  • Pros: Supports basic animation. Lossless compression (for its limited palette). Supports transparency (but basic, not smooth like PNG).
  • Cons: Limited to only 256 colors, making it unsuitable for complex photos. Often larger than PNG for static images.

Rule of Thumb: Use JPEG for photos, PNG for graphics needing transparency or sharp lines (like text), and GIF primarily for simple animations. When sharing via shareify.cloud, consider the file size limit – a high-quality JPEG might be smaller than a PNG for a photograph.