What's the difference between an image, photo, and a picture?
Today, most people consider an image, picture, and photograph (photo) as synonyms (the same word) when discussing a visual representation of an object on a computer. However, for the sake of ambiguity, we define each of these as follows.
Digital images, photographs, and pictures
- Image - Any visual object modified or altered by a computer or an imaginary object created using a computer.
- Photo or photograph - Anything taken by a camera, digital camera, or photocopier.
- Picture - A drawing, painting, or artwork created on a computer. A picture also describes anything created using a camera or scanner.
The image above is a visual example of the differences between these three words.
- The "Image" is a photo of a computer keyboard altered by a computer. It shows where the bumps on a keyboard are positioned by circling them on the "F" and "J" keys.
- The "Photo" is a photograph of a man setting up photographs at a local market taken by a digital camera.
- The "Picture" is of a man holding up a Computer Hope logo created using a computer paint program.
If you're following a style guide that prefers one of these words over another, we suggest following your style guidelines. If you have no style guide, follow our usage of these words or always use the same word in all your writing.
According to Google Trends, "photo" is used more than any of these words on the Internet, followed by image, photograph, and then picture.
Other visual objects created on a computer may fall into its own category, such as clip art, graphic, illustration, render, and a screenshot. When discussing any of these, we suggest using the proper terms instead of image, photo, or picture. In other words, if you're working with clip art, call it clip art instead of a picture.