1. GIF - Graphics Interchange Format JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group PNG - Portable Network Graphics GIF images are limited to the 8 bit palette which only have 256 colours. GIF images are still popular on the internet because of there small sizes. GIF compresses images in two different ways, the first way is by reducing the amount of colours in rich colour images which reduces the amount of bits per pixel, the second way is that GIF replaces multiple occurring patterns into one, which means instead of having different shades of one colour it only shows one. JPEG images are the most popular among the image format used on the web. The JPEG files are ‘lossy’ which means information from the original image is lost when saving a picture as a JPEG. This is because JPEG gets rid of most the information to keep the image file small which means that some of the quality of the image is lost. PNG images has been recently introduced format some not everyone is familiar with it. Since 1996 has been approved as a standard. The image format is specifically designed for the web. PNG images are superior to the GIF, just like the GIF PNG is saved with 256 colours maximum but it saves the information more efficiently and it also supports 8 bit transparency.

2. MOV – Movie Or Video MPEG - Moving Picture Experts Group AVI - Audio Video Interleaved WMV - Windows Media Video RM - RealVideo Flash AVI was developed by Microsoft which stores video data which can be encoded in a variety of different codecs. The AVI file typically uses compression compared to similar files such as.MPEG and.MOV. MPEG is a very popular format for a video made by the Moving Picture Experts Group. The file is compressed with either using MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 compression. This file type is often used for creating movies which will then be distributed over the internet. MOV files are made by Apple these files are compatible with both Macintosh and windows platforms. These files are often used to saving movies and other video files on, it uses MPEG-4 for compression. WMV this file type is based on the Microsoft Advanced System Format, this file is similar to.ASF file. RM is developed by RealNetworks and the file type is used be the RealPlayer, RealPlayer is an audio and video playback and streaming program. The file contains audio or video data and even a link to a streaming media file, which plays back as it downloads. Flash is an open format that is that can be supported by non adobe/macromedia programs. The FLV files may be exported from QuickTime pro or other programs that allow you to export files to the QuickTime file format.

3. MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital Interface RealAudio WMA - Windows Media Audio Wave - WAVE Audio File MP3 - Moving Pictures Experts Group MIDI files are used for interoperability between different types of software programs and hardware devices. An MIDI file can be used to switch some instruments on a MIDI program or a device. MIDI files can not contain any actually audio data. These files are used by RealPlayer, which is a program that is used for streaming internet audio and video. The file is saved in plain text and contains hyperlink to a corresponding.RA file which then can be streamed. This is a audio file that has been compressed with windows media compressions. This file can be used with most windows programs like windows media player and windows music. This file is mostly saved with different sampling rates and bitrates and they are often saved in a 44.1 KHz, 16-bit stereo formats which is standard format used for CD audio. The MP3 files uses “layer 3” audio compression which is commonly used to store music files and audiobooks onto a hard drive. The quality of an MP3 file depends on the bit rate that was used to compress the files. The most common bit rates are 128, 160, 192 and 256 kbps however higher bit rates will give better quality audio but the file size will be a lot bigger.

4. FLA - Adobe (Macromedia) Flash FLA Project File Format GIF - SWF - FLA file format is used in adobe flash pro, and can be used for storing work that is not finish but is still in progress still. The FLA files are converted into SWF files once the work is completed and ready for use on the internet. GIF is a format developed by Compu Serve Inc. GIF files can contain bitmaps at a variety of colour depth's like 2, 4, 16 or 256 colour. This a format originally used for storing animations however it can store a lot more than animation. In order to play a SWF in a users browser they need to have a flash plug-in installed.