Introduction

Graphic types are formats used by computers and graphic artists to create, develop and render images. For example, if a worker pulls up a graphic art program, such as Adobe Illustrator, and creates an image, he must save it in a format that a printer can use to print, a computer can use to render on a screen, or another graphic artist can use to create, develop, or make changes. You may be wondering why there would be a large choice. Why can’t there by one type of graphic type that is usable across all of these types of media. The answer is, there is. There are many that can be played with online games used in several ways, but there are those that are preferred over others for a variety of reasons and features. Just like driving. Sure, all drivers could pick a Ford Cutlass to drive around, and everyone would be able to move about freely and opening. But what about the race car driver? The bus? The stay at home mom? That’s why there are a variety of cars, and that is why we have a variety of graphic types; different needs generate different graphic types.

There are other types of graphic types for media that is non-computer related as well. Think oil painting verse water color, or sculpture verse drawing. All of these are common graphic types but will not be the focus of attention for this article. Instead this article will deal with graphic types and graphic file formats that are used in the computer graphic artist world today. Whole articles could be written on the different types of graphic types that are in the conventional world, and narrowing it down to just a few would be nearly impossible. There are a growing number of graphic types in the computer graphics world as well, but in general it can be narrowed down to the four most popular file formats. Those are: JPG’s, BMP’s, PNG’s, and RAW’s. There are many others which will be addressed in the segment titled Other.