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beemerson
Participating Frequently
March 12, 2019
Question

convert tif to jpg and overwrite original

  • March 12, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 387 views

Howdy. I made the mistake(?) of scanning lots of photos as tifs and I think they are unnecessarily large. I'm using LightRoom to organize and add information. I would like to convert them all to jpgs, but don't want them saved as both tifs and jpgs. PhotoShop's image processor automatically saves them in a subfolder called jpgs. Any way I can override this and overwrite the tif with the jpg?

Also seeking opinions: Is there any reason I should keep these large tifs for a better product for posterity? Or is that unnecessary?

Thanks for any help.

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    2 replies

    Bojan Živković11378569
    Community Expert
    Bojan Živković11378569Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 12, 2019

    The first part of question: image processor cannot overwrite TIFF files with JPEG's. Fortunately it is quick and easy to select and delete files or entire folder.

    Second part: depend on what you want to do with files. Generally TIFF will save better quality files but in most cases it is not necessary to keep TIFF's.

    B
    beemersonAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    March 12, 2019

    Thanks for your quick response. Since my intention is to save these files forever, I will continue to scan them as tiffs and export as jpegs for sharing with family and friends.

      Per Berntsen
      Community Expert
      Per BerntsenCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 12, 2019

      You did the right thing scanning as tiff (if you scanned in 16-bit, even better).

      The jpg format uses lossy (destructive) compression when saving, and throws away valuable information.

      Jpg is a final format, not suited for editing, and image quality will deteriorate every time you do a Save.

      So keep the tiffs, use them for editing, and save out or export jpgs as needed afterwards.

      B
      beemersonAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      March 12, 2019

      Oh thanks, my friend! I began to doubt myself and wondered if .tiff will still be around as a file format 50 or 100 years hence. I appreciate your advice and will carry on with my project!

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