Cannot save directly to JPEG using “Save As” (regression/usability issue)

There are several things going on here that explain why Photoshop now works this way, and why this behavior may be considered “not a bug”…even compared to non-Adobe software.

For one thing, it looks like Adobe was trying to correct a workflow habit that is no longer standard: JPEG should not be in the Save As dialog box. Why? As others have noted, JPEG can’t preserve all Photoshop editing features. There has been an overall trend (that is, not just with Adobe applications) that Save As should be reserved for an application’s native format, or a format that can preserve all native editing capabilities. For Photoshop, those formats are PSD, PSB, TIFF, and Photoshop PDF, and in fact those are the formats available in Save As. Any formats that can’t preserve full editing should be in some other command such as Save a Copy or Export, and that is exactly what Adobe has done with Photoshop.

Impact
Prevents efficient image output for web, client delivery, and general workflows, adding unnecessary time and confusion.  

By @charlene_mortelez2259

No, it does not prevent those things. JPEG is properly and deeply supported in Photoshop in exactly the way I described in the previous paragraph: JPEG is available in “some other command.” And not just one other command, but many! You mentioned “web.” The recommended ways to create a JPEG for web include File > Export > Export As, File > Export > Save for Web, but there are others in Photoshop (such as Image Processor, Generator, etc.) that you can use to create JPEGs depending on your web/mobile workflow. 

You mentioned “client delivery.” I mentioned at least four ways to create final JPEG client deliverables for web in the previous paragraph. But what if they need a JPEG for print? Then you want to use a fifth way: File > Save a Copy. Why? Because out of all of the ways to create a JPEG in Photoshop, Save a Copy is the only way that includes ppi resolution metadata for print. (Why is Save a Copy/Save as not appropriate for web/mobile JPEGs? Because those commands can include extra metadata and previews that are not needed for web use and can result in larger file sizes than you want. The other commands create lean JPEGs better suited for web/mobile file sizes.) 

You mentioned efficiency. The most efficient way to export JPEGs from Photoshop is to take advantage of File > Export > Quick Export after having pre-configured your favorite JPEG settings in File > Export > Export Preferences. That’s because Quick Export immediately exports based on your pre-configured settings, bypassing the dialog box. 

I admit that none of these things are obvious to most users, and most Photoshop training woefully fails to explain the importance of picking the right save/export command for different client deliverable workflows. This is not helped by the fact that Photoshop itself does not explain these things. But if you properly understand how all of the JPEG creation options in Photoshop, including what each is best at, then the fact that JPEG is not available in Save As is much less of a concern, or not a concern at all. 

The next thing a lot of people will do is say “The way Photoshop handles this now is unacceptable, so I will switch to a competitor.” That’s fine, but…you might not find the solution you expect. As I said, this is not an Adobe thing, it’s now standard practice across the industry. For example, Apple Preview does not have a Save As command that includes JPEG. If you want a JPEG, you must choose File > Export, just like Photoshop. And if you switch to Affinity, once again, the Save As command does not offer you JPEG, only the Affinity native file format for the reasons I explained earlier. Again, if you want to deliver JPEGs from Affinity you must choose File > Export, not Save As. So…the competing apps do the same thing as Photoshop!

The ultimate answer to this question is to modernize workflows to be consistent with current best practices whether you use Photoshop or image-editing software from another company: Expect File > Save As to offer only formats that allow full editing, and expect flattened, lossy, or derivative file formats such as JPEG to be offered in a command such as File > Export.

@charlene_mortelez2259 

This is not a bug, so I've moved your post from Bugs to Discussions.

Jane

Here's the full story:

• The jpeg file format specification does not support 16 bit depth, layers, transparency or alpha channels.
• Stripping these properties to directly save out a jpeg copy - without identifying it as a copy! - was introduced in 2010, in Photoshop CS5.
• It had to be removed in 2022 or 2023, because changes in security/file integrity policies in MacOS no longer allowed it. 
• So Adobe had to introduce Save A Copy, thus making the process fully transparent and up front. The big mistake was that Adobe tried to sell it as a "feature" instead of what it really was: an emergency rescue operation. It should be noted that this is how all other image editing applications have always worked and still work.
• Later they were able to find a new workaround, available as "legacy save as": However, it carries some risks, so it is not enabled by default.

If the file complies with the jpeg file format specification - 8 bit depth, no layers/transparency/alpha channels - jpeg is still available under a regular Save As.

The behavior of the "Save As" has been changed several version before. I can't remember on which exact version.

Goto Edit > Preferences > File Handling and select the option Enable legacy "Save As". 

Revert to legacy Save As options