| .bmp | Uncompressed, lossless. A standard Windows format. |
| .raw | Uncompressed, lossless. A format used by some advanced digital cameras to deliver exactly the picture as taken with no processing. Uses lots of storage. |
| .tif | Some compression, lossless. A useful format to store images when you must not lose any detail. |
| .jpg | Good compression, lossy. The most common format used to store photographic images efficiently. Used by most digital cameras to economise on memory. Some software enables you to control the amount of compression to obtain the best compromise of file size and retained detail. |
| .gif | Good compression, lossy. Good for compressing artwork but not for photographs. |
| .psp .psd .pdl |
Various formats used by different digital imaging software packages. Usually little compression (often larger than .bmp) but lossless. Can retain details of intermediate stages of processing an image, such as layers. |
| .zip | A format used for compressing data files. Not used for images. |