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Quick Tip of the Week: Image Files

March 16, 2009 In the last edition of Quick Tip of the Week, we discussed how to create short URLs. Today we're going to tackle image files.

Image File Formats
There are almost more graphic file formats than there are shoes in my closet and trust me, that is a few too many. Most of us only need to know about and interact with a few of them:

• .gif - which stands for graphics interchange format
• .jpg or .jpeg - short for joint photographic experts group
• .bmp - a bitmap file format, and the occasional
• .png - or portable network graphics

But there are dozens more, and each one has its own limitations.

Why It Matters
Don't worry, I'm not going to discuss the pros and cons of any particular format. This is supposed to be a Quick Tip right? But graphic file format does matter because there are times when you have an image in one format but need it in another. For example, in my recent blog post about LinkedIn Best Practices I uploaded two images. They were simple screen captures from my desktop, nothing too complicated. Except my Mac saves them as .bmp files and that file format is incompatible with this blog.

Online Image Converters
Enter the free online image converter. Just upload your image, click convert, and depending on which tool you're using, your new converted image will either be emailed to you or downloaded automatically.

Of all the free tools I've tried, my favorite so far is from CoolUtils because it is drop-dead simple. I easily converted a .bmp file to a .jpg in just seconds. There are similar free tools available for download, and far more robust packages you can buy that allow you to manipulate individual images or convert a large batch of images at once. But if you only need to convert the occasional image for your blog or website, the free online image converter from CoolUtils should do the trick.

If you have an idea for the Tip of the Week let me know. I look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Sima Dahl on March 16, 2009 | Comments (3)