These formats keep appearing from scanners and legacy systems, and each is genuinely good at one thing nobody remembers.
What each one is
| Format | Compression | Still useful for |
|---|---|---|
| BMP | None, usually | Almost nothing — convert it |
| TIFF | Lossless, optional | Archival scans, print, multi-page |
| GIF | Lossless, 256 colours | Short animation, and only just |
| PNG | Lossless | What BMP should have been |
| JPEG | Lossy | Photographs |
| WebP | Both | Everything on the web |
| SVG | Vector | Logos, icons, diagrams |
The pattern: BMP and GIF are superseded and worth converting on sight. TIFF is not superseded — it is a professional format that still does things the others cannot, and converting it can lose information.
BMP: convert it, always
A BMP stores every pixel literally with no compression. A 4000 × 3000 image is around 36 MB regardless of content — a photograph and a plain white rectangle take the same space.
PNG stores the identical pixels losslessly and typically lands at a tenth of that. There is no quality argument for BMP: converting to PNG is lossless in both directions, so nothing is given up.
BMP persists because it is trivial to write, so old software, some scanners and a few embedded devices still emit it. Convert on arrival — Image Converter does it locally — and use PNG for line art or JPEG for photographs.
TIFF: the one worth keeping
TIFF is a container rather than a single format, which is why it behaves inconsistently and why it is still used professionally.
It supports lossless compression, multiple pages in one file, 16 bits per channel, CMYK colour, embedded colour profiles and layers. Archives, print production and document scanning all standardise on it for good reasons.
- Multi-page TIFF is a real thing and the closest the image world has to a PDF. Converting one to JPEG gives you the first page only in many tools.
- 16-bit TIFF holds far more tonal information than an 8-bit JPEG. Converting throws away data you cannot recover.
- CMYK TIFF is print-ready. Converting to RGB shifts colour, and converting back does not restore it.
- The flip side: browsers do not display TIFF, and many web forms reject it, so it is a working format rather than a sharing one.
So: convert a TIFF for sending or publishing, keep the TIFF as the master. Converting a multi-page scanned TIFF to PDF is a common and sensible move, since PDF handles multiple pages natively and everything opens it.
GIF: animation only, and barely
GIF is capped at 256 colours per frame, which is why photographs in GIF look banded and dithered. For a still image it is worse than PNG in every respect.
Its one surviving use is short animation, and even there the alternatives are better. An animated WebP is typically 30–50% smaller at the same quality with a full colour palette. A short MP4 or WebM is smaller still, often by an order of magnitude.
GIF survives on inertia — it is universally supported and it autoplays everywhere, which for a reaction image is the whole job. For anything where quality or weight matters, it is the wrong choice, and a five-second GIF at 8 MB is a common and avoidable page-weight problem.
Vector: a different question entirely
Converting a PDF to a vector file, or pulling vector art out of one, comes up constantly and is misunderstood.
A PDF already contains vectors. Text and drawn shapes are stored as outlines and paths, not pixels — that is why they stay sharp at any zoom. So extraction is a matter of getting them out into an editable format, not converting anything.
- If the PDF was made from vector art, opening it in Illustrator, Inkscape or Affinity Designer gives you editable paths directly. No conversion tool needed.
- If the PDF contains a photograph, there is no vector to extract. A photo is pixels, and "converting to vector" means tracing — an approximation, not a recovery.
- Tracing is genuinely useful for a logo you only have as a low-resolution image, and it is a redraw rather than a conversion. Expect to clean it up.
The distinction that matters: if the thing was ever vector, it still is and you just need the right application. If it was never vector, no tool creates one — it only guesses.
What to convert to
| You have | Send or publish as | Keep as |
|---|---|---|
| BMP | PNG or JPEG | PNG — nothing lost |
| TIFF, single page | JPEG or PNG | The TIFF |
| TIFF, multi-page scan | The TIFF | |
| GIF, still image | PNG | PNG |
| GIF, animation | WebP or MP4 | The source video, if any |
| PDF with vector art | SVG via a vector editor | The PDF |
The general rule across all of them: convert a copy for the recipient, keep the original as the master. Every conversion either loses something or is at best neutral, and the master is the only thing you can convert again differently later.
Frequently asked questions
Should I convert BMP to PNG or JPEG?
PNG for line art, screenshots or anything with flat colour — it is lossless, so converting from BMP gives up nothing while cutting the size by roughly ten times. JPEG for photographs, where the lossy compression is a much bigger saving and invisible at quality 0.8.
Is TIFF better than JPEG?
For different jobs. TIFF is lossless, supports 16-bit colour, CMYK and multiple pages, which is why archives and print use it. JPEG is a fraction of the size and displays everywhere. Keep the TIFF as your master and send a JPEG.
Why does my multi-page TIFF only convert the first page?
Because many tools treat TIFF as a single image and read only the first directory in the file. A multi-page TIFF is closer to a PDF than to a JPEG — convert it to PDF, which handles multiple pages natively and opens everywhere.
Should I still use GIF?
Only for short animation where universal support and autoplay matter more than quality. GIF is capped at 256 colours, so photographs band badly. An animated WebP is 30-50% smaller with full colour, and an MP4 is smaller again.
How do I convert a PDF to a vector file?
If the PDF was made from vector art, it already contains vectors — open it in Illustrator, Inkscape or Affinity and you have editable paths. No conversion is involved. If it contains a photograph, there is no vector to recover; tracing produces an approximation.
Which format should I archive scans in?
TIFF for the master if you have the storage — lossless, 16-bit capable, multi-page. PDF/A for the access copy, since it is designed for long-term rendering and everything opens it. Avoid JPEG as an archival master; every re-save degrades it.