Document & Image File Formats

An encyclopedic reference on the raster, vector, and document container file formats used in printing, scanning, and archiving — TIFF, PNG, JPEG, PostScript/EPS, XPS, and the PDF sub-standards — explaining how each format encodes pages and images and how format choice affects print fidelity and long-term preservation. Vendor-neutral and anchored to the published specifications and the standards bodies that maintain them.

Planned cluster · long-term capacity 22–34

Entities

format

TIFF · PNG · JPEG · JPEG 2000 · PostScript · Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) · XPS · WebP · BMP

standard

PDF/A · PDF/X · ICC profile · CCITT Group 4 fax compression · ISO 32000 (PDF) · ISO 19005 (PDF/A)

concept

CMYK · RGB

organization

Adobe · ISO · Joint Photographic Experts Group

Connected clusters

In the archive

Planned coverage

What Is TIFF? The Tagged Image File Format for Scanning and Archiving — Explains TIFF's tag-based structure, its role as a lossless scanning/archival format, and multi-page support
What Is PNG? Lossless Raster Images and Transparency — PNG's lossless DEFLATE compression, alpha transparency, and why it suits line art and screenshots over photos
What Is JPEG? Lossy Photo Compression Explained — How JPEG's DCT-based lossy compression works and where quality artifacts come from in printed photos
What Is JPEG 2000? Wavelet Compression for Documents — The wavelet-based successor to JPEG and its use in document imaging and archival contexts
PostScript and EPS Files Explained — The PostScript page-description language as a file format and how EPS packages a single graphic for placement
What Is XPS? The XML Paper Specification — Microsoft's fixed-layout document format, its ZIP/XML container, and how it compares to PDF for print
What Is PDF/X? The Prepress Print Exchange Standard — How PDF/X standardizes files for reliable commercial printing, including color and font embedding rules
JPEG vs PNG: Choosing Between Lossy and Lossless — When photographic lossy compression beats lossless line-art compression, with print implications
TIFF vs PDF for Scanned Documents — Trade-offs between raw image TIFF and searchable PDF output when digitizing paper
Raster vs Vector Graphics for Printing — The fundamental difference between pixel-based and geometry-based formats and how each scales at print resolution
CMYK vs RGB: Color Models in Files and Printing — Why screens use additive RGB and presses use subtractive CMYK, and what conversion means for a file
What Are ICC Color Profiles? — How ICC profiles describe device color spaces so files reproduce consistently across screen and print
Lossy vs Lossless Image Compression — The core distinction between discarding data and preserving it, and how it maps to common formats
Multi-Page TIFF Explained — How a single TIFF file stores many scanned pages and why archives favor it
Group 3 and Group 4 Fax Compression — The CCITT/ITU bilevel compression schemes behind fax and black-and-white document scanning
What Is WebP? Modern Web Image Format — WebP's lossy and lossless modes and its relevance (and limits) for document-oriented workflows
What Is BMP? The Uncompressed Bitmap Format — The simple Windows bitmap format, why it is uncompressed, and where it still appears in printing
How Resolution and File Format Affect Print Quality — How pixel dimensions, DPI, and format compression jointly determine printed sharpness and file size
Choosing a File Format for Scanned Documents — A vendor-neutral decision guide across TIFF, PDF, PDF/A, and JPEG for different archiving goals
File Containers vs Codecs in Document Formats — Clarifies how a container format wraps encoded image data and why the distinction matters
Embedding Fonts in Print and PDF Files — Why fonts must be embedded for faithful printing and how PostScript, PDF, and PDF/X handle it