GIF file verses JPEG/JPG???

Question

When I download digital sheet music, it always presents as a GIF file(well, that's what it was originally). But I was told that GIF files take up a lot of space, so is it all right for me to save the sheet music as a JPEG or a JPG? will it damage the original contents?

pros and cons of JPEG/JPG(what's the difference???) and GIF pictures? I never really understood it.

Answer 1

GIF format does very well with low colors which are in "blocks" on the screen. GIF just might be better at displaying sheet music than JPG. JPG is really meant for full color photos/images, not just 2 colors on a sheet of music (assuming that's what the sheet music is).

You should notice that if you save the sheets as JPG, you'll see artifacts throughout the sheet (depending on the amount of compression you give it). GIF just looks sharp and clear. The less colors needed on the image, the better reason to use GIF instead of JPG.

EDIT***: The two people below me obviously don't know what their talking about when it comes to defining GIF. JPG is not higher quality than GIF -- it affects the image completely different. If you have 2, 4, or even 8 colors on an image, where for the most part each color is bulked together in the image, it is going to be much better to use GIF. If you've got an image that has "dots" of each color scatterred through it, JPG is certainly the way to go, because GIF would have to save more information to cover the same color's pixel location instead of defining a large area that is the same color.

capeesh? comprende`?

Answer 2

JPEG/JPG are the same. The JPG is of higher quality than the GIF file.

Answer 3

Gif can contain many image, so it can animate.
Jpg(or Something like it) contain only 1 image.
Gif is smaller but isn't good enought to print as an image b/c it is used to transfer throught the Internet.

Answer 4

The following pages will help you:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question408.htm
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question289.htm
http://www.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=question289.htm&url=http://www.worldstart.com/guides/imagefile.htm