What file format do you save in ?

[Blossom]

I have just recently seen in several places that someone saves in png instead of jpg. I know the guy at work who's a photogeek always does png to me when I am going to have marketing materials - and he says png is better than jpg.

Will Shutterfly upload png's ? And is png better than jpg ?

[dstnd2be]

In my opinion PNG is mainly for file size & JPEGs offer better quality.

JPEGs are for photographs and realistic images. PNGs are for line art, text-heavy images, and images with few colors

[lima]

PNG is a "lossless" file format--you can resize, manipulate, and re-save with no loss of quality. JPG, however, is a "lossy" format--every time you re-save it, you lose some quality because jpg throws away color information in order to keep a small file size.
I save in PSD, although I am going to be changing over to layered TIFFs. I have not seen that Shutterfly accepts pngs. When I save from PS for Shutterfly, I save the flattened file as a high-quality jpg.

[esther_a]

The main differences between png and jpg are that png allows for transparency whereas jpg has greater compression. Otherwise I think they are both good for photos. Line art, text-heavy images, and images with few colors are often saved as gif - another format again. Because gif and jpg are compact they are often used for the web.

[dorah]

I only save in png when I want the background to remain transparent like with an extraction or word art or something on that order. I have just started saving as layered tiff instead of the psd format because it takes up less room and gives you an actual preview image to look at without opening the file. For printing and uploading I save as a jpeg.

[Blossom]

for those of you using tiff:
so do you save the file as tiff during the entire time you work on the LO or first psd, then tiff.

I started to use tiff - but then I heard that tiff is compressing the file and "ruining" it and stopped. But I liked the fact that you can preview the tiff file and that it takes up less space.

[esther_a]

There are a number of compression options for tiff files. Perhaps it depends which option you choose. I've never noticed any deterioration. I save as tiff the whole way through.
But I might be wrong... I'd hunt the web for some documentation but I've got to go to work! Perhaps someone else knows for sure?

[dorah]

Since I started saving as tiff, I save as tiff all the way through. Like Esther, I don't know about deterioration either. I know I have saved, closed, reopened and continued working and I haven't noticed any difference from working with a psd file except they do take up less room.

[esther_a]

I found confirmation that it is best to use the lossless LZW compression on a layered TIFF file in Google Books here. I've read it before, but don't remember where!
I also found a suggestion on a forum that TIFF is a more open standard, and therefore a better archival format.

[JALong]

I am so glad to see this thread. I am making some cheerleader banners. I am supposed to save in tiff. I have been saving as psd because when I go to save as tiff it gives me a menu of different check boxes and I don't know what to check. Can anyone help me? Is it too late to save my psd to tiff?

[Blossom]

I did a little researching with googling tiff vs psd and found some discussions. I read also several places that TIFF is a more open standard, while psd is an adobe format,and is therefore only useable in adobe programs - therefore suggestions were made to save in tiff.

An when I think of it I do save ads to tiff if I make it in photoshop and send to the magazines that shall have them - have not thinking combination work/private

[esther_a]

Janet, I have been progressively changing my psd files to tiffs. I just make sure that layers is ticked on the Save dialog and then change the compression to LZW compression. I leave the other default unchanged.

[JALong]

When saving as a tiff, do you know if I should check Macintosh under byte order. Carollee directed me to a tutorial that showed the settings and it said to check IBM PC, but I am using a Mac? The two options under Byte Order are IBM PC and Macintosh.