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August 8, 2018
解決済み

How important is it to know (what they do) and understand file formats in Photoshop?

  • August 8, 2018
  • 返信数 5.
  • 1657 ビュー

Hello all,

Was just wondering if you could give me any advice on file formats when importing or exporting in Photoshop/when receiving or sending off anything required for photoshop.

I have done a lot of my own research on the topic but still get confused with JPEGS, DNGS, RAWS, TIFFS etc.

I am still a beginner and the last thing I want to do is send a file in the incorrect format to a client.

Any sort of advice will be of great use.

Thank you in advance.

- CT

    このトピックへの返信は締め切られました。
    解決に役立った回答 D Fosse

    Yes, PNG support for icc profiles is unreliable. Jpeg supports profiles reliably, and it also supports CMYK in the format specification, although not always in many applications' jpeg decoding. 

    Jpeg is usually fine as final delivery format, provided you don't edit and resave it multiple times afterwards. Jpeg data compression is destructive, irreversible and cumulative, and quality degrades with every resave. Never use jpeg as a working/archive format.

    The reason jpeg is still widely used, is that the compression is incredibly effective for reducing file size - shrinking a file to, say, 2-10% of original size with little visible quality loss. This can be important for online delivery.

    If image quality and integrity is critical, e.g. for high quality print, jpeg is risky. For this, the standard interchange format is TIFF. Much bigger files, but no quality loss whatsoever.

    PSD is the native Photoshop format, and the only one that supports all Photoshop functions.

    A raw file - many proprietary formats, CR2, NEF etc - is not something you will ever send away. That's the "naked" sensor data from a camera, and it needs processing in a raw processor to become a useful image. Not to be confused with Photoshop .raw, a very specialized format that is almost never used.

    返信数 5

    ChadPT18作成者
    Known Participant
    August 9, 2018

    Thank you to all who posted. Very interesting and informative!

    Per Berntsen
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 9, 2018

    I have hardly ever used PSD because Tiff is the "industry standard", and I believe there are more applications that can open tiffs than PSDs. Tiff compression is also more effective than PSD compression, but I didn't know by how much, until I did this test:

    An 8-bit tiff saved with LZW compression (lossless) is less than half the size of a PSD. LZW does not work well with 16-bit files, it can actually increase the file size.

    The 16-bit tiff with ZIP compression (also lossless) is less than 10% smaller than the PSD, but it's still a reduction in file size.

    The amount of compression will vary with image content, and for the record, here's the image I ran the test with.

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 9, 2018

    OK. This is down to personal choice. To me, the main thing about master files is that they never leave my machine. So standards are irrelevant to me as long as Photoshop can work with them.

    With a 5.5 TB archive and growing, plus 2 backup sets, I might start to worry about file sizes at some point. These 10 TB enterprise disks are pretty expensive

    jbm007
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 8, 2018

    Often it also is determined by the type of camera you use and the format the camera uses.

    camera raw files are the best format to work in, but they are often large in size.

    convert ing images to dng gives you more flexibility in case you camera or format is no longer supported.

    In all honesty you should be looking at the use of color management in your workflow.

    That in the long run will be more important then which file format you settle on.

    JMTW

    gener7
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 8, 2018

    This is a good thread to look at: PNG image quality superior to JPEG?

    D. Fosse pointed out something I never even knew: Tiff is best for (usually sent out) commercial printing above the others because it can handle the CMYK printer profiles needed for this work in order to get consistent color. Jpeg and Png are best for web.

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert解決!
    Community Expert
    August 8, 2018

    Yes, PNG support for icc profiles is unreliable. Jpeg supports profiles reliably, and it also supports CMYK in the format specification, although not always in many applications' jpeg decoding. 

    Jpeg is usually fine as final delivery format, provided you don't edit and resave it multiple times afterwards. Jpeg data compression is destructive, irreversible and cumulative, and quality degrades with every resave. Never use jpeg as a working/archive format.

    The reason jpeg is still widely used, is that the compression is incredibly effective for reducing file size - shrinking a file to, say, 2-10% of original size with little visible quality loss. This can be important for online delivery.

    If image quality and integrity is critical, e.g. for high quality print, jpeg is risky. For this, the standard interchange format is TIFF. Much bigger files, but no quality loss whatsoever.

    PSD is the native Photoshop format, and the only one that supports all Photoshop functions.

    A raw file - many proprietary formats, CR2, NEF etc - is not something you will ever send away. That's the "naked" sensor data from a camera, and it needs processing in a raw processor to become a useful image. Not to be confused with Photoshop .raw, a very specialized format that is almost never used.

    gener7
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 8, 2018

    https://forums.adobe.com/people/D+Fosse  wrote

    PSD is the native Photoshop format, and the only one that supports all Photoshop functions.

    There used to be more than a few "Tiff is no different than PSD" threads.

    So what Photoshop functions does Tiff not support? I want to put this to rest.

    Gene

    Mohit Goyal
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    August 8, 2018

    Hi ChadPT,

    Please refer the below articles, which explain you the major difference between all file formats used in Photoshop.

    File formats in Adobe Photoshop

    How And When To Use Different Types of Image Files

    Hope it helps.

    Regards,

    Mohit

    melissapiccone
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 8, 2018

    DNG and RAW are both raw formats and you will never send them to a client. You will convert them most likely to jpg. They are your "negatives". Unless someone specifically asks for a tiff, probably no tiffs, either. Jpgs are your friends to hand off. What do you do, what are the files you are sharing?

    Melissa Piccone | Adobe Trainer | Online Courses Author | Fine Artist
    ChadPT18作成者
    Known Participant
    August 8, 2018

    Hello Melissa.

    I generally send JPGs when a client has asked for a quick look at an image so they can get an idea of how things are progressing.

    I will normally send TIFFs as final delivered files unless the client has asked for something else.