When choosing to scrapbook digitally, it is important to understand image file types to ensure that your files are archived with the quality and file size that you desire.

Understanding file types will also help you learn which formats are best for making modifications without degrading the image, and which formats are best for storing and printing your images. Image files can become very large, which take up more space and slows your computer.

Different file formats are used as a way to compress the image file size. Compressed files fall into two categories: lossy and lossless. Lossless files preserve all image information if decompressed later, the file would match the original uncompressed file. Lossy files are much smaller, but discard some of the image information in order to shrink the file size. Below is a list of popular image file formats, their characteristics, and common uses.