You can create digital image files in several formats, such as Microsoft Windows bitmap image file, graphic interchange file, Joint Photographic Export Group (JPEG) file, Landsat Thematic Mapper data file, Microsoft Paint image file, Adobe Acrobat PDF file, PIXAR picture file, Apple Macintosh QuickDrawPICT file. Compared to general text files, the size of image files are too large require efficient communication protocol to transfer them over the Internet.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the fundamental communication protocol for exchanging information over the Internet or any other given network. TCP/IP comes with two components, i.e., communication protocols – HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) and FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Both these protocols allow us to share digital information through a network.

In general there are two ways of transferring files over the Internet – via Email and via FTP. Email is considered as the simplest method of sending files where you can send any types of files (text, image, spreadsheet etc.) with a text message. But there is a drawback in sending information or large image files via Email.

The size of the file matters when you are exchanging file via Email. The upper limit of the size of the mail (including the attachment) is defined in the Mail Gateway, which transfers digital information in the form of data packets. However, you can send large image files by breaking the one file in several parts, which is not a user-friendly process and requires extra effort to combine the files.

You can overcome this problem by taking the help of FTP hosting service. For graphic artists and web designers there is nothing better than FTP hosting service to share or transfer large image files over the Internet. In FTP hosting service files are transferred via a server. FTP hosting service comes with two components – FTP Server and FTP Clients. Files are transferred from one remote computer to another via FTP Server. You can upload all your artwork in the form of digital files or image files on the FTP server. The server will store copies of your uploaded files, irrespective of file size. Authorized people from remote computers can access uploaded images from the FTP server and download them to your computer. Therefore, it can be said the FTP hosting service is the right option for graphic artists and web designers to share or transfer large image files over the Internet.

Graphic artists and web designers prefer FTP hosting service to create preview of the artwork for the client, to display audio and/or video presentation and to exchange password protected images. Based on your need, you can place large graphic images on a secured or public FTP sites. The baseline of FTP hosting service is to allow FTP account holders to access the allocated space in the FTP server. There are two options for graphic artists to upload large graphic files on a publicly accessible server – these are general Web Server and FTP Server.

Compared to Web Server, FTP Server provides more security and comes with some added features to fulfill business objectives of graphic artists and web designers. Sending images, audio and or video presentations in business purposes require secured mode to keep the privacy of the artwork. FTP hosting services allow you to transfer password-protected images in a compressed file format.

Following are some file image formats, which are supported by FTP hosting services:

• BMP (Microsoft Windows Bitmap Image File), a common image file format with extensions – ‘.bmp’, ‘.dib’, ‘.vga’, ‘.rle’, etc.

• DCS (Quark Desktop Color Separation EPS File), is an extended form of EPS (Encapsulated Postscript) format. With the help of QuarkXPress you can save files in five EPS documents – one master file with PICT preview of the image and four files, which contain information on high resolution of the color, in CMYK format.

• GIF (Graphic Interchange Format), a compressed format for image file to transfer the files efficiently through a communication protocol. The extensions are – ‘.gif’.

• JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is another compressed file format to transfer image files over the Internet.

These are some common file formats for images. However, there is no restriction on the file type and size. Graphic artists and web designers can store or share large images for business purposes on the FTP server. With FTP file hosting services, you can protect the quality and privacy of the artworks from unauthorized users.