Which file format is commonly used for photographs due to its balance of quality and file size?

• A. JPEG
• B. TIFF
• C. PNG
• D. GIF

Answer: (A)

Balancing image quality with file size is essential for practical photography use, and JPEG is designed for that purpose. It uses lossy compression that trims data to shrink the file, while letting you choose a quality level so you can keep plenty of detail for photos intended for web viewing or sharing. The result is a small enough file size that loads quickly, yet still looks good in most real-world viewing situations. Other formats serve different needs but aren’t as well suited for general photographs: TIFF can be lossless and produce very large files, PNG preserves detail without compression artifacts but tends to be bigger for photos, and GIF is limited to 256 colors, which makes it unsuitable for full-color photographs. Therefore, JPEG remains the common choice for photos due to its efficient balance of image quality and file size.