A picture is worth a thousand words.

A graphics file is a bitmapped (pixel [picture element]) representation of an image used to convey visual information.

Graphics files include, but are not limited to: photographs, clip art, line art, digital art, icons, bullets, backgrounds, and imagemaps.

A graphic image can be:

• Single color (black/white) often referred to as line art.
• Grayscale (shades of gray)
• Color, usually 256 colors, thousands of colors, or millions of colors.

Photo quality images generally need at least 256 colors, but are much better with millions of colors. Note that photographic images on the web will look best if you're computer is set up to use more than 256 colors.

The more colors or shades of gray, the larger the file size. File size is important because the file must be transferred across the Internet from the web site to your web browser, usually via modem.