Image format
An image format is the way a picture file is stored, such as JPEG, PNG or WebP, and each store or channel accepts only some formats.
- Image file type
What it means
Every picture file is saved in a format. The letters at the end of its name usually say which: .jpg for JPEG, .png for PNG, .webp for WebP. Shopify says “The best file type for most product images is PNG, followed by JPEG.”1
Not every destination reads every format. Google Merchant Center accepts JPEG, WebP, PNG, GIF, BMP and TIFF.2 Shopify takes those and also PSD, SVG and HEIC.1 AVIF is on neither list, so it needs converting before it goes anywhere.
The name has to match the file. Google says a file’s extension “must correspond to its actual format”, and that a .jpg name on a PNG file “leads to ‘Unsupported image type’ errors”.2
Think of it like this
Formats are like the languages a letter can be written in. The message can be the same, but a reader who only knows French cannot read German, so the letter is translated before it is sent.
For example
A supplier sends its photos as HEIC files. They import into a Shopify store without complaint. HEIC is not on Google’s list, though, so the same pictures are converted to JPEG before they go into the Google feed.
Why it matters
Google’s image link must point directly to “a valid image file” in one of the formats it lists.2 Converting once, in the supplier file, to a format every channel you sell through accepts saves fixing each feed in turn.
Not to be confused with
Format here means the file type, which has nothing to do with shape. A picture described as landscape or portrait format is talking about its aspect ratio, which a file of any type can have.
Sources
- Shopify Help Center. Product media types.
- Google Merchant Center Help. Image link [image_link].