Comparing and Contrasting File Types

Adobe PDF File icon

There are many different file types that do the same task differently. For example, PDF and DOCX files both create a text document, but PDF files are not editable, smaller and display as an image rather than a text document. On the other hand, DOCX files create an editable text document that is generally larger than a PDF of the same size, and, because DOCX files are displayed as text documents, can be edited by anyone with access to the file. The files sizes of these documents varies, and there is not much consistency in whether one file format is smaller or larger than the other. The more content there is in the document, the more likely it is that the DOCX file will be larger. This is because the type of content in a document, such as images and tables, affects how much memory it will take to store the document.

PDF files are generally more useful if you are sending a CV to someone, as the image will not change depending on the operating system the other user is using. DOCX files are text documents, and so if you send them to someone else with a different operating system, how the file looks may change. This means it is better to send a document as PDF files, as it will not affect how the document looks in any way.

Microsoft Word DOCX File icon

Another two types of files that are similar but work differently are PNG and JPEG files. These are both types of images, but JPEG files are generally smaller and cannot contain any type of transparency within the image. In contrast, PNG files were made for the internet, and so are smaller. They can also contain transparency, which means that if you wanted the background of the image to be the same as the background of the website you were posting it on, you would make the background transparent and whatever was behind it would show through. I mainly use PNG files myself, as I don't mind about the larger file size and prefer to have the option to have transparency. I converted all the original images we were given in AS91073 from the JPEG files to PNG files, as this let me add transparency to my images and I could show things behind my image.