How to change default options in saving a jpeg?

[carol mcgann]

When I did "save as" on a jpg, it always used to default to the previous quality setting I had used, in the jpeg options image quality pop-up box. I want to always use 12, which always came up bacause I had used it on the last save. Recently it started defaulting to 5. I changed it to 12; the next save (new image) went back to 5. I changed it again to 12 on the next new image, then restarted photoshop, the next save went back to 5. I can't find anyplace in "preferences" to specify my preferred value. How do I fix this? 

[D Fosse]

As far as I know, jpeg compression defaults to whatever that particular file was last saved with.

You do know that a jpeg is degraded with each new save, and that the degradation is cumulative and non-reversible? Resaving a jpeg should always be avoided if at all possible.

[carol mcgann]

I'm working with files that haven't been saved before (except by the camera, and I just tried taking 2 photos at different camera resolutions, and they both wanted to save as a 5; also I've been taking photos with this camera and its same settings for weeks, and this problem just cropped up yesterday). Each photo is getting only a single edit, so the degradation isn't an issue, and they're going on the web, so need to be jpgs for that.

It just has always been my experience that it saved at the last quality I used, even on some other picture, and I was so used to the saving process not having any other adjustment steps in it. I know I can change the quality each time I save a photo, but I'd rather be able to get a default somehow.

[MiloInSanDiego]

Three years later, this just started happening to me.  I scanned a paper photo at 600 resolution with the name photo-orig, opened it in Photoshop, and wanted to save a copy called photo-edit.  Over and over, it suggested 5 instead of the 10 or 12 I like.  Degrading a shot down to 5 should be a choice, not the default!  Why is this suddenly happening and is there something I can do to get it to always be 12?  Or at least 10?

I've heard that re-saving a photo does always degrade it some and there's nothing I can do about that, but Photoshop shouldn't be suggesting that I do!

[D Fosse]

Did it come out of the scanner as jpeg? Photoshop will normally resave at the same compression level it was previously saved at.

Resaving a photo does not degrade it - but saving as jpeg does! If you don't want degradation, don't use jpeg. Save to TIFF or PSD instead. Jpeg should never be used as a working format, only as a one-off final product, and only when bandwidth or storage space is severly limited. Web and email call for jpeg; scanning doesn't.

[MiloInSanDiego]

It came out of the scanner as .jpg, not .jpeg. 

As for resaving, it starts as a .jpg and I don't want to work on the orig so I immediately make a copy, which is also .jpg .  If I do extensive work on it, then my layers are saved as a .psd and I save the final as a .jpg.  But if I only plan to do something really simple, like brighten it or fix once scratch, then there's no reason to make it a .psd in between . But I do need to copy that first one or I lose my orig which I sometimes want to go back to.

Also, sometimes I want to use neural filters or boost a photo with Topaz.  That doesn't work with a psd so I have to save it as jpg to do that.  (I could flatten my psd, i suppose, but then my layers are gone forever).

[Maola]

It also troubled me, searching many times but couldn't find the answer. In the end, I solved it with my actions.