My understanding was that an "artifact" was properly applied to physical, historical objects, while an "artefact" was more correct for more abstract, intangible, error-ish concepts (ex: a compression artefact).

However, the couple of online sources I checked suggested that the difference was merely spelling, and that both were usable for both definitions.

Is there any usage preference between the two?

Is there any usage preference between artifact and artefact?

My understanding was that an artifact was properly applied to physical, historical objects, while an artefact was more correct for more abstract, intangible, error-ish concepts, for example a compression artefact.

However, the couple of online sources I checked suggested that the difference was merely spelling, and that both were usable for both definitions.