Image formats: best and most versatile

Larry4511 · Post by **Larry4511** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:44 pm

After reading about the short-comings of jpeg, I am wondering just what those shortcomings are and what would be a better pick for an image format that is most compatible with other software. It was interesting to read about the tiff format, but I have never used it...can it be viewed with the Windows Preview program?

Also, is the .psp format better than .psd? Can Adobe CS read the .psp format?

Thanks. I am also considering the purchase of Corel PhotoAlbum to create some slideshows and such...anyone like it?

See ya.

Post by **LeviFiction** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 4:39 pm

While I'm not oeverly familiar with these I've been told that .png and .tiff are recommended formats as they are or have lossless optimizations. PNG for more web graphics and such. And TIFF for more high-quality pictures.

Maybe I've got that wrong.

What I do know though, is that PSD is best for photshop and PSP is best for Paint Shop Pro. I would save to PSD if I were giving it to a Photoshop user. So it's not which is better, it's which is better for the program.

pdxrjt · Post by **pdxrjt** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:08 am

PSP will preserve all of your Paint Shop Pro settings and is certainly valuable. Jpeg is never truely lossless (IMHO)....even when optimized.... so tif/tiff or psp work for me. Frankly, even when using the 1% lossless export in PSP, I find artifacts....so I only use jpeg when forced to do so.

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 8:52 am

PSP is a proprietary working format for PaintShop Pro only. So if you're intentions are to share images with friends/family, they would need some version of PSP in order to view them.

PSD while it can be opened in various other applications, is a working document meant for PhotoShop. Some applications may not correctly open all layers in a PSD. Some programs may merge layers that were not merged in PS.

JPEG has always been a lossy format. Each generation of jpeg images will lose quality. However it has been one of the better for displaying images on the web, or storage when space is a premium.

TIFF file format is ideal for editing because it still retains a large amount of image information (almost as much as RAW). TIFF is especially good for retaining color information. TIFF gives you a lot to work with, while being much smaller than a RAW file.

PNG is a loss-less compression format, that was created to replace GIF. It however was designed as a internet distribution format, so some color spaces such as CMYK, are not supported by PNG.

One of the most widely acceptable formats is BMP (bitmap). It is a loss-less, uncompressed graphic format.

PhotoAlbum Deluxe 7 seems to be a good simplistic program for doing what you want. I can't really comment much on it, as I don't use it. I use PhotoImpact, Corel Draw Graphics Suite, or PSP Photo for most of my work. Sadly for some reason Corel does not provide a free trial of this program.

Larry4511 · Post by **Larry4511** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 6:57 pm

Geez, thanks for the great information. I guess I just missed the likely signals all over the place that jpeg was awful.

My Canon digital camera is set to produce jpegs, and now I am looking at all those pictures like..."something's missing!" I hope I can set it to produce .tif images instead.

I do notice that PSP groans when I tried to save a .pds image to .tif, suggesting that some stuff would be lost. Is this a real problem, or is enough saved with the conversion to still make the image high quality? PSP also complains if the conversion is to .bmp as well.

Well, it's good to know this stuff. Now I can start working on straightening, cropping, and enhancing the singles I cut up from my scans with PSP. I guess I will have to do the straightening and cropping manually (oh, my back!

), but I intend to figure out how to batch the enhancements and adjustments by adding a script to the batch selections.

Since color was mentioned as being one of the 'losses' in jpegs, I am hoping that intensifying the color will make up for that on those photos produced by my digital camera as jpegs. Probably won't work, but...

Thanks again!!!

Post by **LeviFiction** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:04 pm

The information lost when converting from these formats to .tif or .bmp is the layers (adjustment/normal) so everything is flattened to produce the final image. Transparent areas are lost, and so on. Everything editable in Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro is lost and you're left with what the image would look like if you flattened it manually with the merge menu.