GIF

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

• Uses a palette of 256 colours
• Handles solid colours well
• Handles sharp edged line art well
• Doesn’t handle gradients well (can be handled with dithering and blur)
• GIF allows interchange of images / frames to support animation
• Handles transparency on block objects
• Uses matting for edges of graphic & transparency

PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

• The PNG format was created to improve upon and replace GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) which was limited to 256 Colours.
• An image format embodying lossless data compression (known as deflate).
• PNG offers a variety of transparency options; most notably allowing the addition of an alpha channel thus greatly improving transparency quality with no need for matting.
• Improved transparency allows improved layering and visual effects in web design.
• Greater colour depth gives greater precision and clarity and improves the quality of fades.
• PNG has better image clarity than JPEG when used for text or images with sharp transitions.