Apple Final Cut Pro 6 - Manual (Page 1717)

234 Part III Output
Third-Party Codecs
There are several manufacturers of video-editing solutions, most of whom use different
variations of the M-JPEG codec. Many make software-only QuickTime codecs that you
can install on your system, enabling you to play back movies with little or no
rerendering. For more information, contact the manufacturer of the editing system.
Note: Most third-party codecs cannot have alpha channels.
Graphics and Still-Image Formats
 BMP: Standard bit-mapped graphics format used on Windows computers.
 FlashPix: A format for storing digital images, especially digital photographs,
developed by Eastman Kodak Company.
 GIF: Graphic Interchange Format. A common bit-mapped graphics file format used
on the web.
 JPEG/JFIF: Joint Photographics Experts Group. A “lossy” compression file format used
for images. JFIF is JPEG File Interchange Format.
 MacPaint (PNTG): A monochrome file format used on early versions of the Macintosh
operating system.
 Photo JPEG: An extremely popular file format because it can create highly
compressed yet good-looking graphics files. You can choose grayscale or color as
well as the amount of compression.
 Photoshop (PSD): You can import files created or saved in the Photoshop format,
along with multilayered Photoshop files. (For more information, see Volume III,
Chapter 19, “Compositing and Layering.”)
 PICS: A file format used on Macintosh for animation sequences. The format is no
longer used, in favor of QuickTime.
 PICT: A common image format used on Mac OS computers. PICT files can use any of
the standard QuickTime codecs for compression in color or grayscale.
 PNG: Portable Network Graphics. A file format for bitmapped graphic images
designed as the successor to GIF.
 QuickTime Image File (QTIF): A QuickTime container file that contains an image using
a supported QuickTime codec.
 SGI: Silicon Graphics Image file format.
 TARGA (TGA): The Targa file format. An uncompressed file format that stores images
with millions of colors. Targa files are supported by nearly every platform and
media application.
 TIFF: Common on Mac OS and Windows computers. TIFF files allow color depths
from dithered black and white to millions of colors and one form of compression.
Note: Almost all of these file formats can contain an alpha channel.