Why Screenshot Are Always Saves As Png ?.
A screenshot is an image of your current computer screen, mobile, or high-end device. And if you ever notice that all screenshots, whether they are from iPhone, Android, Macbook or PC, are always saved in .png format.
Now, of course, you can change the default extension (.png) to something like jpg or gif by tinkering with your device settings. But by default, most devices save screenshots in .png format. You know why ?
To understand this, we need to first understand the 3 most common image compression methods i.e. jpg, png and gif. Without going into technical details, here’s a quick overview:
Jpeg or jpg is suitable for multi-colored photos, such as wallpaper for a desktop, a photo taken by a camera of a nature reserve.
Png is best for solid color images like text, logo, clip art, etc. Png also supports transparency, making it ideal for splash images for programs like Photoshop.
Gif is similar to png but also supports image animation.
Now let’s get back to the part of the screenshot. One key point to note here is that everyone wants their screenshot to look sharp and clear. In other words, the image should look like it did on the original screen without losing quality. Here, image quality is preferred over small file sizes.
Since most of the time the screen of our computer or mobile phone is filled with text and not with colorful decorations, it makes sense to use png. Right ? This ensures not only high image quality but also a reasonable file size.
Png compression is lossless, meaning what you see is what you get. However, jpg compression results in a loss of image quality depending on the compression level. If we were to use jpg instead of png, we would get pixelated or blurry images. Whereas gif is not used because png gives the same result as gif but with a smaller file size.
See screenshot that uses jpeg. File size ~ 40Kb
I can’t see the same screenshot compressed via png. File size ~ 100 Kb
Output
As you can see, even though jpg compression can result in a small file size, the output quality is too low to be usable. Even with the same file size, png would be much sharper than jpg. So, by default, png will be selected to save the screenshot.
If you need to edit and compress a photo taken with your camera before uploading to Instagram, use jpeg compression. This way your file size will be significantly reduced without affecting image quality too much.
However, for uploading a screenshot of a computer or mobile phone to the Internet, png is preferred, for best quality with a reasonable file size. Limiting the use of gif to animated images only.