Question

I think this is a computer science question.
Why do you lose sharpness in your pictures when saving a png as a jpeg? Also if I wanted to keep sharpness in a picture but wanted the file extension to change to a more popular file extension, what file extension should I choose?

Answer 1

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2336522/png-vs-gif-vs-jpeg

Answer 2

Here is a good comparison of them: http://info.eps.surrey.ac.uk/FAQ/standards.html

Basically jpeg is lossy and png is not

Answer 3

so you need to weigh up quality vs compression

Answer 4

I want quality for sure but I want a file extension that is popular (you know to upload on a webpage)

Answer 5

such as OpenStudy

Answer 6

Hi Myininaya,

The jpeg format allows for image compression, so it looks for similarities in colors in the different areas of the pictures. If the picture is at night and there is a black sky in the background, jpegs compress that part of the picture to allow save on memory. You can keep jpegs pretty clear, but you have to do it by saving it without a lot of compression. You can do that in Photoshop and other photo editing programs, some of them are free.

The same programs can convert from one format to another. You have to make sure to use those programs though. Changing the file extension by itself will make the image unreadable.

A couple free programs are: http://picasa.google.com/, and http://fotoflexer.com/.

Answer 7

PNG is now very widely supported

Answer 8

JPEG is most suitable for real-world pictures you take with a digital camera, whereas the PNG format is nice for those icons and graphics you design in software .

Answer 9

Pretend like there was this person named @rebeccaskell94 and she was having issues with a png file I gave her...and that is all I really know...she was having trouble uploading this file to some site *cough openstudy cough*

Answer 10

lol

Answer 11

I don't know if it is windows to mac thing or not

Answer 12

I think she had mac and I had windows

Answer 13

PNG is an open standard

Answer 14

so .png files as profile pictures don't work? or you can't download .png from OS?

Answer 15

so it should make no difference if you have a Mac/Windows computer

Answer 16

what exactly is the problem being experienced?

Answer 17

upload to OS*

Answer 18

I think this avatar I'm using was a png though

Answer 19

all images I use on almost any site (including OS) are png files

Answer 20

a good test would be to ask her to open locally on her machine - say in the IE browser

Answer 21

Gosh I don't know then.
Hopefully @rebeccaskell94 can make some sense on her end.
Thank you guys for attacking this question.
You all deserve medals.

Answer 22

And this might have been a computer science/feedback question...lol.

Answer 23

haha Sorry Myin!! my bad.

U I have to save the pic to my desktop to change it's format and it gives me like a dozen options but the few that OpenStudy actually accepts, are all blurry. :/
I'm on a mac haha

Answer 24

@shadowfiend I might should have put this in the feedback group but it also sounded computer sciencey.
Anyway what do you think a good file extension would be if you don't want to lose a lot of prettiness in your avatar?

Answer 25

I have a mac as well and always use png format pics with no issues.

Answer 26

well here let me show you meh picture...give me just a sec

Answer 27

This was the file I was trying to give her.

Answer 28

Whenever she tried to use it, it would show up blurry because of switching file extensions I guess.

Answer 29

ummmm I guess it worked. o.o
weird.

Answer 30

lol. omg,

Answer 31

and here is the same file I just saved and re-uploaded...

Answer 32

xD idk why! Last time I saved it and tried people kept telling me my picture was blurry (it was) Oh well, I look like a boss now. My orange hair, and all.

Answer 33

looks like rebecca is going viral! :)

Answer 34

Is that good or bad?

Answer 35

it faaaaaantaaaaastic! :D

Answer 36

haha YAY *high 5* :D

Answer 37

*high 5*

Answer 38

Yeah, for the record, stick to PNG if you don't want blurriness. OpenStudy, Windows, and Mac OS X should all support PNG out of the box. Mostly because it is one of my favorite file formats EVAR :p

Answer 39

Thanks again all! :)

Answer 40

haha @shadow and yes! Thank you all so much!