There are many formats a scanned picture can be saved in. There are two popular ones used for internet pictures. The first is the Joint Photographic Experts Group Bitmap File Format which has the file extension JPG. This format is good for pictures of people or places or any other picture where the number of colors is important. The other popular internet file format is the CompuServe Bitmap File Format which has the extension GIF. This format allows from 8 to 256 colors. It is good for things such as Logos or Text pictures where color in not as important and not as many different colors are used in the picture. Both formats use compression to reduce the file size of pictures.