| Additional Info: | The file type of an image is a technical metadata just like image resolution, aspect ratio and file size. Gelbooru already handles resolution and file size internally, displaying both, and making the former available for searching. Common aspect ratios are getting well-tagged lately.
It could be said that in general, image types define quality groups on Gelbooru. PNGs are usually bigger and more higher quality images, often scans. JPGs are usually lower in resolution and quality. GIFs are the worst in quality, since they are inherently limited to a maximum of 256 colors, and are usually dithered down to achieve this. So in general, PNGs > JPGs > GIFs.
The ability to search for file types would help users finding images in certain formats without the need to convert them manually later. It would also help users to avoid GIFs altogether in case they wouldn't want any images in a format inherently restricted to 256 colors. It would mean being able to negate an outdated image format altogether from searches, which would help making sure the user would find only high quality images. |
