GIMP Free Version For Store - Use Manual(10)

● The Native GIMP image format. Everything is saved: layers, selections, channels, paths and more.

● Not a “display” format, even if you can find codecs to display thumbnails of XCF image in file explorers.

● Bulky.

● Color channels are coded in 8 bits (in GIMP 2.8).

● Saving all GIMP work.

● Compresses the files quite efficiently.

● Universally supported for display.

● Compression is “lossy” and it slightly alters the image data. In case of global changes (color, contrast…) repeated file editing will slowly degrade the image quality.

● At good quality levels, compression is invisible in photography, but can be seen (so called “artifacts”) in computer-generated graphics and text.

● Doesn’t support transparency.

● Color channels are coded on 8 bits.

● Display of photography

● Storage of photography

● Lossless format, all pixels are kept.

● Supports partial transparency.

● Produces small files with most computer graphics.

● Supported by all browsers.

● Complex images (photos) are bulky.

● Color channels are coded in 8 bits.

Web page widgets: banners, buttons, frames, etc…

Computer graphics.

Screenshots (unless this screenshot contain mostly a photo).

● Universally supported for animation.

● Only 256 colors per image, leads to blocky look. (a modern variant supports 256 colors per frame, but GIMP doesn’t use it).

● Supports transparency but only as fully transparent/fully opaque.

Small animated images. (in all other still-image uses PNG is a better alternative, and for bigger animation modern HTML supports video)

● Lossless format, all pixels are kept.

● Color channels can be coded in 16 bits.

● Can store several images (layers).

● Supported by all image processing software.

● Can be bulky on complex images.

Storage and exchange of high quality images.

● No loss of information from the camera sensor (in theory).

● High-depth color channels (12 or 14-bit).

● Proprietary (except DNG).

● Content format can change without notice (new camera models), this can impact support by your favorite software.

● Bulky.

● Not suitable for display.

Storage of camera output, but a secondary copy in some universal format could be a good idea.