I made this Instructable for me; to improve my Instructables, however I intend to share what I found. I have noticed some of the images I upload to Instructabes come out perfect and other images loose clarity, a little discolored or fuzzy. Not knowing if it is my computer, the file formats, the internet, or the Instructables website that is causing the distortion, I decided to test my image file formats.

I make my schematics in Paint, not a circuit simulator program for two reasons. First, I like the looks of my schematics. Second, I design circuits that work in the real world, however many of my circuits don’t work in a circuit simulator.

I used just two images for this Instructable, however the two images are in seven different file formats.

Step 1: Bitmap

Although most of my schematics are black and white, I don’t use Monochrome because I like to color my LEDs.

These schematics are in order 16 Color Bitmap, 24-bit Bitmap, and 256 Color Bitmap.

If you look closely you can notice they are slightly fuzzy.

Step 2: Checking Image Clarity

These schematics are in order 16 Color Bitmap, 24-bit Bitmap, and 256 Color Bitmap.

I checked the image clarity by downloading the uploaded schematics and changing the white in the schematics to red.

As you can see in the first image (16 Color Bitmap) almost all of the white pixels turned red but the off white distorted pixels.

In the 24-bit Bitmap and the 256 Color Bitmap images there are much more off white pixels that didn’t turn red.

Not as good as the 16 Color Bitmap, the GIF or the JPEGs schematic most of the white pixels turned red but for pixels near the schematic, this is what gives the schematic a fuzzy appearance.

Step 3: Color Assembled Circuit Bitmap

These color assembled circuit bitmaps are in order; 16 Color Bitmap, 24-bit Bitmap, and 256 Color Bitmap.

The loss of color in 16 color bitmap makes it almost a monochrome image.

And 256 color bitmap is noticeably whited out most noticeably on the capacitor and the battery.

Here the 24-bit Bitmap is almost as good as the image I produced it on my computer.

Step 4: GIF

The color assembled circuit GIF image is distorted by whiting out most noticeable on the battery.

I checked the GIFs schematic image clarity by downloading the uploaded image and changing the white pixels in the schematics to red.

As you can see almost all of the white pixels turned red but for a very few distorted pixels

Step 5: JPEG

The color assembled circuit JPEG image is distorted by whiting out most noticeable on the battery.

I checked the JPEG schematic image clarity by downloading the uploaded image and changing the white pixels in the schematics to red.

Almost as good as the GIFs schematic most of the white pixels turned red but for a few distorted pixels near the lines in the schematic. These few off white pixels cause the fuzzy appearance.

Step 6: PNG

The color assembled circuit PNG image clarity is very good comparable to the 24-bit Bitmap and TIFF.

I checked the PNGs schematic image clarity by downloading the uploaded image and changing the white pixels in the schematics to red.

Not as good as the GIF or the JPEGs schematic most of the white pixels turned red but for pixels near the schematics lines, this is what gives the schematic a fuzzy appearance.

Step 7: TIFF

The color assembled circuit TIFF Image clarity is very good comparable to the 24-bit Bitmap and PNG.

I checked the TIFFs schematic image clarity by downloading the uploaded image and changing the white pixels in the schematics to red.

Not as good as the GIF or the JPEGs schematic most of the white pixels turned red but for even more pixels near the schematic, this is what gives the schematic a fuzzy appearance.

Step 8: Conclusion

Even though these are all the same images they are saved in different file formats. Not all file formats are equal and none of the file formats did both the schematics or the color assembled circuit with good quality.

I found the best uploaded color assembled circuit is the 24-bit bitmap being just slightly better than PNG and TIFF.

I found the best uploaded schematic the GIFs schematic being just slightly better than JPEGs and much better than the 16 Color Bitmap. Almost all of the white pixels in the GIF schematic turned red making it the least distorted schematic.