Which extension to use?

[MnM]

I always save my sprites as PNG. I never bothered why. Even I saved my bigger art works as PNG. The doubt arose when I saw some(or all of the artists in DA) stored them as jpg. So I would like to know, which extension should I use for which type of work.

[betitngoan]

i save it as PNG ... even in DA ....
i think the professional artist in DA saved it as JPG because the PNG version would be for sell only

[Lauli]

Just look at the file sizes and the quality. If you can accept a relatively high file size, but therefore have perfect quality - use png. If you can accept a slightly worse quality than png, but therefore have a nice small file size - use jpg.

[InPhiKnight]

PNG is of high quality, but size is big.
JPEG quality can be set manually in gimp(maybe others too) while saving it. If the quality is high, the size will be more and if low quality, the size will be less but when you zoom you can notice color has shifted a bit.

[Memento]

PNG is good. However when you print an image, saving it to PDF might be better. I once saved my images in PNG and it always left the printer in bad quality. Then in PDF, the quality was perfect.

The image quality on your computer will be the same in PNG as in PDF however, so PNG is probably your best bet.

[Monolanier]

Actualy I am saving as PNG, well, its easier later to edit, editing bmp upload and after sometimes losing files makes hard to face the fact that your work is ruined

[The Lost Global Mod]

For printing art, TIFF is the best solution imo. There is no compression whatsoever.
For spriting PNG is best i believe if you want to showcase it. JPEG just loses to many details in that regard.
JPEG is best used for photos or image manipulations, except if you don't mind a little quality loss in your art then drawings might go in there too. Otherwise PNG is the best solution for art. PNG was alongside GIF supposed to be used for web (so showcasing in this case)

[prince_freeza]

png is just good for sprites and small stuff (to preserve details and such) but for big paintings and drawings like on da its better to save it as a jpg,, it gives the finished piece that jpg overlay feel to it idk how to call/explain in but i do it some times..

edit: damn phil outposted me

[Som1Lse]

For printing art, TIFF is the best solution imo. There is no compression whatsoever.
For spriting PNG is best i believe if you want to showcase it. JPEG just loses to many details in that regard.
JPEG is best used for photos or image manipulations, except if you don't mind a little quality loss in your art then drawings might go in there too. Otherwise PNG is the best solution for art. PNG was alongside GIF supposed to be used for web (so showcasing in this case)

Clearing up a few things here:

First of all while PNG uses compression, it is fully lossless, which means no data is lost from the image, while still having a smaller filesize. Also I believe this is possible to turn off, at least to some degree. PNG was intended to transfer files over the internet.

TIFF isn't completely uncompressed, as it can be saved with compression, this is however optional. What makes it better than PNG for professional artists, is that it supports layers, making it better for programs such as GIMP and Photoshop, on top of that, it isn't solely limited to RGB but is also capable of using CMYK, which is what printers use. I believe it is also capable of storing metadata (such as pixels per inch/centimeter etc.)

JPEG is sucky for any sort of graphics stuff. The only real place in which it is useful is for family photos and the like, where you aren't saving an image but a memory, and thus don't need ALL THE DATA. In that case JPEG has a significantly smaller filesize, and thus you can hold more images on your hard drive.

GIF is awful, and is only ever useful if you need animations in your work, but in that case it would be better to use an actual video format such as AVI or MP4. The reason why it is awful is that it doesn't support full colors (only 256 different colors), and thus you would end up with a very grainy image, and that is pretty much always an awful thing.

So in conclusion:
Use TIFF if you work with any sort of high quality image, especially if it needs to be printed (such as a poster).
PNG is great for sprites as they are supposed to be shared over the internet mostly, and since all the quality is conserved.
JPEG is only ever useful if you don't need (or don't want) a high quality image, or if you need a small filesize.
GIF is awful and should pretty much never be used. (the only acceptable case is sharing funny gifs on the internet really, even then versions of PNG that support animation are beginning to arise)

If you ever work with professional art, sharing images in smaller JPEG files is a good idea to save bandwidth, and so people can preview the artwork, but not use it as-is. If people want to purchase the full image, then TIFF is the best option. This is the reason why I think many people share images in DA in JPEG.

png is just good for sprites and small stuff (to preserve details and such) but for big paintings and drawings like on da its better to save it as a jpg,, it gives the finished piece that jpg overlay feel to it idk how to call/explain in but i do it some times..

I see no reason to use JPEG for the JPEGy feel, as it is pretty much never desired in artwork. Saving it as a PNG or TIFF, and you will have the full high quality image. Maybe sharing it in JPEG makes sense as detailed above, but not specifically for the JPEGy feel.

[betitngoan]

PNG is good. However when you print an image, saving it to PDF might be better. I once saved my images in PNG and it always left the printer in bad quality. Then in PDF, the quality was perfect.

The image quality on your computer will be the same in PNG as in PDF however, so PNG is probably your best bet.

thanks for the PDF information >.< help me a lot !!!