JPG vs. PNG Conflict

[Sound Master]

I don't know what to do. I want to ensure lossless quality, but at the same time, I also want the files to be as small as possible. I also want to use common formats that people use every day. Should I use jpg, png, or something else?

[Cornucopia]

That's your call, but the usual recommendations is for natural photographic material, use jpg, and for non-natural/abstract material go png.


Scott

[Sound Master]

That's your call, but the usual recommendations is for natural photographic material, use jpg, and for non-natural/abstract material go png.


Scott

And what is "non-natural/abstract material"?

[johns0]

Think of Vincent van Gogh art.

[Cornucopia]

...Or vector art, or computer graphics...

Scott

[hello_hello]

Depending on the settings used when you save an image, and also depending on the type of image, there can be a huge difference in file size between JPEG and PNG or very little. I often save images in both formats and if there's not much difference, I keep the lossless version.

A JPEG isn't just a JPEG as such though. A decent program will let you adjust the quality. And for PNG you can adjust the compression.
I saved these as JPEGs using a quality setting of 85%, and without chroma sub-sampling, and they're larger than the PNG versions.

Irfanview's save dialog for JPEG:

Saved as PNG

[Attachment 78077 - Click to enlarge]

Saved as JPEG

[Attachment 78079 - Click to enlarge]

For PNG:

Saved as PNG

[Attachment 78078 - Click to enlarge]

Saved as JPEG

[Attachment 78080 - Click to enlarge]