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Question

LRC to PS. Why not to activate ZIP Layer compression from LrC to PS when ZIP compression is asked ?

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
November 12, 2025
3 replies
329 views

Dear all

I'm trying to find the best file size for a RAW send to PS for modification. The testing protocol is simple. From LrC I edit in PS with several options (PSD, TIFF with no compression, TIFF With ZIP compression, ). In PS I do the same modification (Split frequency, add a background) And at the end, before saving, PS is telling me that the document size is 753.7Mo far all options selected in LrC before (this is normal). Is is just to check that the result is consistent in all tests

1) From LrC PSD ,16 Bits, Prophoto, resolution 240. PSD File size at the end in LrC 642.64MB

2) From LrC TIFF, 16 Bits, Prophoto, resolution 240, no compression. TIFF file size at the end in LrC 1.15GB

3) From LrC TIFF, 16 Bits, Prophoto, resolution 240, ZIP compression. TIFF file size at the end in LrC 1.10GB

4) From LrC TIFF, 16 Bits, Prophoto, resolution 240, ZIP compression but at the end in PS instead of closing the file and accept the save I do a save as in TIFF. And when the TIFF windows appear, I select ZIP Layer compression. TIFF file size at the end in LrC 596,73MB

So why you are not activating the ZIP layer compression from LrC when ZIP compression is asked in LrC ?

Kind regards

Windows

ouiouiphotoAuthor

Known Participant

This morning I receive a mail from Adobe asking me "Did you get the answer you needed?" and to rate the good answer. But unfortunately there is no good answer so far. Is this non usage of ZIP compression of Layer when editing to Photoshop from Lightroom even if you ask Zip Compression is a regression, a miss or as designed and then why not to use it.

Adobe communicate that TIFF should to be the preferred format between LrC and PS, one of the reason is compression, but this is incorrect because PSD consume less hard drive space that TIFF. TIFF is better only if you activate the Zip compression of layers

On my 8TB Hard drive 4.7 TB as used by 5148 Tiff files when this can be reduced to probably less of 1.5 TB just by activating the ZIP layer compression

.Sheepdog trying to help Lightroom and Photoshop beginners

E

ExUSA

Legend

I'm not sure what you are asking but Lightroom sends a flattened image to Photoshop from a RAW file. There are no layers besides the background.

ouiouiphotoAuthor

Known Participant

Yes but you create layers in PS for your final dev/retouch work. And Those layers can be zip compress when you save. But even if you select ZIP compression in LrC they are not in the final TIFF

.Sheepdog trying to help Lightroom and Photoshop beginners

E

ExUSA

Legend

You don't specify that in Lightroom. Its a save option in Photoshop.

dj_paige

Legend

File size is largely irrelevant; it is the wrong measure. Optimizing file size is not the same as optimizing image quality. Compressed files will naturally have a decrease in quality compared to uncompressed, although you may not be able to actually visually discern the differences between an image that is compressed and the same image uncompressed.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

Compressed files can be losslessly compressed, in which case there is zero impact on image quality. ZIP-compression is lossless.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

dj_paige

Legend

Okay, that seems to answer the question about how to compress files, use lossless compression. It also ends the question about the value of looking at file sizes.

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