What's the Difference Between a BMP and a JPEG?

“What’s the difference between a BMP and a JPEG file?”

If you’ve gone to save a picture on a computer, you’ve probably noticed that there are a few different file formats you can use. BMP (short for bitmap) and JPEG (short for Joint Photographic Experts Group) are two of your options, and they each have their ups and downs. We checked Web Design for Dummies and Photoshop 7 for Dummies (which, though it refers to a fairly old version of Photoshop, still has good basic information) to get the specifics.

If you save an image as a BMP, it’ll be high quality and will never degrade. However, the file size will be relatively large, and, depending on the size of your picture, it will be difficult to send as an email attachment or post online.

Saving images as JPEGs produces much smaller files that are easier to email and post online. However, when you open, edit, and resave a JPEG image, it will lose a little of its quality. It’s good to use when saving photographs and graphics with lots of colors, but will cause a more noticeable loss of quality in images with large areas of flat color.

If you’d like to know more about BMP and JPEG, as well as other file formats like GIF and PNG, feel free to come in and peruse our selection of computer books!