How Do I Change Save / Save As Default to JPG in Photoshop CC 2017?

[abbieg]

Been searching but haven't found answers.

How Do I Change Save / Save As Default from PSD to JPG in Photoshop CC?

These are my steps:

- Editing a RAW file in ACR

- Then open it in Photoshop to do more edits

- Save/Save As...

Photoshop defaults to PSD. I've read other discussions that's because Photoshop will default to original file format. But this is a RAW file, not a PSD file to begin with.

My question is how do I change this default to JPG instead of PSD? It's annoying having to use the mouse to go down the drop down menu and scroll through to find JPG to save the file. I move through keyboard shortcus, so stopping to use the mouse just do select JPG really slows me down.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

[Trevor.Dennis]

FWIIW, I have a shortcut to Flatten the document, so if I want save as a JPG without having to use dropdown menues to find it, any limiting factors are removed.

[Danton1962]

Until I updated just tonight to 24.0.0 I could simply hit Save or Save As and my RAW files, after editing in Camera Raw and Photoshop, would automatically come up to save as JPG, which is what I want. Now I have to go to the drop down menu to change from .psd to jpg. It's a pain. How can I go back to the way it worked for me for years? Thank you. 

[PECourtejoie]

- Then open it in Photoshop to do more edits

By @abbieg

Hi, could you describe what you mean by "some edits?" does it entail the creation of layers, or promoting the background to a layer, via crop, etc.?

[garymak]

Let's try this simple question again.  No need for coding or "export outboxes" and all kinds of razzle-dazzle solutions.  The original question was "How Do I Change Save / Save As Default to JPG in Photoshop"? I'm asking the same question as it was never answered.

There is SOME quirk in PS that "recalls" the last "save as" file type SOMETIMES for SOME FILE TYPES but not for others.  How do you change it to what you want, i.e., "JPG"?

It works like this: you save a file as it does not matter whether is is a RAW, PSD, GIF, WHO file, that's irrelevant -  let's pick something obscure like "DICOM" (whatever the heck that is) and then, after you save the file as that, the next time you are saving a file any file- it could be just a few minutes later, a day later, a week or a month - when you are working on a file and click "SAVE AS" the screen opens and, what do you know? it has defaulted to "SAVE AS DICOM."  Now you decide to save it as a "Photoshop PDF". You save it.

Next time you open a file - any format - work on it, then go to save it, what do you know? It has defaulted to "SAVE AS DICOM."

Repeat process, save a file as something else, maybe "PSD", go to save it, what do you know? It has defaulted to "SAVE AS (maybe" PDF" or maybe still "DICOM."

There is no rhyme or reason it seems.  One day, you go to "SAVE AS" and DICOM disappears and it will be stuck on "PSD" or "PDF"... but as the gentleman origianlly wrote, it never seems to be defaulting to "JPG", probably the file type the majority of people are wishing to save it as.

So, what's the secret?  Anybody know?  Somathetime is stays the same, somathetime is changes file types.  The only interaction is the previous "save as" it seems....

Answers and solution on the the question are most welcome.  Please skip all the replies related to coding, scripts, export, planetary alignments, etc.  This strictly has to do with 1) why PS picks up some file types and maintains them as the default "save as" file type and not others and 2) when and how does it change it to something else?  That's what's happening.

Much thanks!

[D Fosse]

it never seems to be defaulting to "JPG", probably the file type the majority of people are wishing to save it as.

By @garymak

As has been explained many times here in the forum, jpeg can never, under any circumstances, be a general default in Photoshop.

The jpeg file format specification is so limited that basically anything you can do to a file in Photoshop will exclude jpeg. It does not support 16 bit depth, layers of any kind, transparency or alpha channels. A jpeg is basically a flat array of 8 bit pixels. Anything else is off limits.

PSD and TIFF are the only file formats that support all Photoshop tools and features.

So this is really very simple and uncomplicated.

[PECourtejoie]

To echo @D Fosse if you want to have a file with reduced capacity (flat, 8 bits, no alpha, masks), then you should export/SFW, not save... The idea is to have non destructive writing of a file: save; to lose editing reversion and produce an image for showing it, Export/SFW.

[Dori Wagner Eldridge]

I understand exactly what you're asking, as I have asked the same question time and time again with each and every update of Creative Cloud and Photoshop for the past couple of years. In addition to my color space settings always reverting to "Adobe RGB (1998)" from my previously-preferred "sRGB...", but that's another issue and at least easily fixable, my "Save As..." and "Save a Copy..." reverts to PSD in the "Save as type:" drop-down window. Workflow is the same as yours - I open a RAW in ACR, adjust some sliders, open the file in Photoshop (said file is set in ACR to open as an 8-bit file), make my edits (sometimes with layers, sometimes without layers). When I am done editing and wish to save the file as a jpeg for uploading to online galleries or whatever, I type Alt-Ctr-S, and the window that pops up *used to* default (for lack of a better word) to JPEG in the lower of the two drop-down menus. And that's what I'd like, particularly when editing a few hundred images in one session. Of course I can scroll to JPEG in the dropdown, and of course I can create an action, but "Alt-Ctr-S, Enter, Enter" is much faster. So, yes, absolutely, I have had a JPEG default option (again, maybe the wrong word) for thousands upon thousands of images I've edited over the years whenever I type Alt-Ctrl-S, regardless of whether I flatten or don't flatten said images. Starting with CC, all Photoshop updates have caused this "default" Alt-Ctrl-S to display PSD, rather than JPEG, but I had a fix. A couple of years ago, someone was able to understand my issue and gave me a brilliant trick to make that Photoshop Save As/Save a Copy dropdown move directly to JPEG: Type Alt-Ctrl-S as usual, click the dropdown window where PSD is displayed, scroll to JPEG, click the JPEG option and hit Ctrl at the same time. I had to do this only once after an update, and it forever defaulted to JPEG on all subsequent SaveAs/Save a Copy. It worked great after every subsequent update until 24.1.0. Now the white is wearing off my Ctrl key, I've rebooted a dozen times, checked my preferences, and I am still needing to scroll away from PSD to JPEG each and every time.

[garymak]

I believe you are correct in your assertations and assumptions.  In fact, PS used to "Save As" and bring up the file format you just previously used, i.e., if you previously saved the file as a "JPG" then the next time you "save as" any file, your default option, i.e., that which appeared already selected in the window, was "JPG."  If however, you previously "Save(d) As" say, a GIF  then the next time you "Save as" the file format that appears in the window would be "GIF"... That's how it always worked.  

With PS2023, however, there is a bug... and you are correct- you can't get it back to 'JPG" as the default file when you "Save As."  If you save it as any other format, then when you so "Save As" the file menu option window menu defaults to whatever file format you saved as previouslyexcept for JPG!  

Recently,  I had accidentally selected "JPEG 2000" (which appears above "JPG" in the menu selection option window) and prior to saving the file.  I canceled it (did not save it as), redid selecting "JPG" and then saved it.  Yet, the next time, and the next several hunded times now I have saved a file, "JPEG 200" always comes up pre-selected in the menu options (unless I have layers in PS in which case it defaults to "Photoshop") and never "JPG."  That means for hundreds of images that I am processing, I always have to go to the menu and specifically select "JPG" each time instead of "JPEG 2000."  What a pain!  You are correct.  It never happened before, and now it does...  Adobe, however, seems unable to comprehend this problem...  Part of the problem is that Adobe's Customer support is entirely overseas, and are not native English speakers.  Hard getting through...

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

If your prefs are set to use legacy save as, then the following script can default to JPEG Baseline quality 10 as the default:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/save-as-jpeg-again/td-p/12650865#U126...

Once installed, a custom keyboard shortcut can be applied.

Without legacy save as, the script would need to be modified to save as a copy.

[garymak]

Not sure what the confusion is.  PS2022 used to default in "Save As" to the last file type saved INCLUDING JPG, now PS2023 doesn't.  That's it.  That's the issue.  Nothing else.  Going off on tangents about the need for writing and embedding special scripts, or why JPG has this or that limitation, or why JPG isn't a "good" file type, is irrelevant.  The vast majority of people use JPG as a final product file format, however they arrive there.  I have huge TIFF and PSD files that I've worked on, as do most photographers, but, everybody wants /needs the final product in JPG.  That's the point. 

Again, PS2022 used to default in "Save As" to the last file type saved INCLUDING JPG, now PS2023 doesn't.  That's it.  That's the issue.

[D Fosse]

You don't understand. The limitations in jpeg are very real. It's not an academic point.

Jpeg can never, under any circumstances, be a general default in Photoshop. It's not possible. It never was possible.

Almost anything you can do to a file in Photoshop puts it outside the jpeg file format specification. A jpeg cannot be 16 bit, it cannot have layers of any kind, it cannot have transparency or alpha channels. Any file that has any of these properties has to be a copy branched out from the original.

If the file already conforms to the jpeg spec, with all the limitations, jpeg is available directly under Save As. That, if you remember that far back, was the only way you could save to jpeg in Photoshop CS4 and earlier - back then there was no Save A Copy, no other way at all.

From CS5 in 2010, you could save out this jpeg copy directly from the Save dialog, until Apple decided that this was not allowed in MacOS and removed the APIs that made this possible. So the function had to be rewritten from scratch. It is now enabled through "legacy save" in preferences - but this time with the important provision that you risk unintentional overwriting of originals. So this time, it cannot be automatically enabled - the user has to be made aware of the risks and implications before enabling it.

There is absolutely no confusion here. This is all crystal clear.

[garymak]

I think we are not talking about this same thing.  I'm not exactly sure what you are talking about by "default."  What I am talking about is as follows: see image

When you "Save As" the file, in PS2022, it would default to the file type you previously saved it as, in most cases, the final product as a TIFF or JPG or GIF or JPG 2000...  The next time you "Save As" that very same file format would come up first and be selected, i.e., be the default "save as" format... This is very helpful when you are saving many similar files from a job after working on them and your client wants the JPG final product.   So once you saved te first file as a JPG, each time thereafter it woud continue to be the default format file type in the menu... (unless you used something else...) 

With PS2023, however, it will continue to do that EXCEPT for "JPG" now.  If you save it as a GIF or TIFF or JPG 2000, etc., once, the next time you "save as" it will default to that format again in the save as menu, but NOT JPG.  You now in PS2023 have to select "JPG" every time, but you don't have to with other formats.

Since I've been doing this for years, I've noticed it changed in PS2023... that's why I mentioned it.  I think you are talking about something else, about PS overwriting the originals and losing the PSDs or something.  That's not what I'm talking about.

[jane-e]

This thread was started by @abbieg on 10 July 2017 and so much has changed on this issue in the past six years!

Jane

[Maerten]

This thread was started by @abbieg on 10 July 2017, and much has changed. But this issue is still not solved. I have the same problem. After an update, it works just fine, and then I apparently do something (no clue as to what) and the issue appears again. So, the issue being that when you open a file in Raw, work on it in photoshop and then want to save the file as a jpg, you have to choose the extension .jpg. (and yes: I've flattened the layers) And the next time you save, you again have to choose jpg again. It does not remember jpg. It remembers weird extensions like CIN and DMC, but not jpg. Why?

It's not a big thing, but it is irritating and time-consuming.

[D Fosse]

Jpeg does not support 16 bit depth. Change to 8 bit and jpeg is available - as long as you don't do anything else to the file.

Almost anything you can do to an image in Photoshop will violate the jpeg file format specification and not be allowed.

[Maerten]

No, thats not the issue. For a while, the save-as-option has as a default extension .jpg. And then for some unknown reason, the save-as (or save-as-copy) function has the default extension of .psd. With the same files as before, so totally unrelated to the file itself.

Problem is that you have to change that default-extention to jpg. Thats easy, but timeconsuming. So it would be very helpful if photoshop would remember the last saved extension.