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Andromeda#JPOK1000
Participating Frequently
November 8, 2022
Question

Photoshop JPEG saving options

  • November 8, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 1367 views

I have been using Photoshop for some time now, however, I still do not fully understand what all the different JPEG saving options are. I mainly only use JPEG (JPG, JPEG,JPE

 

JPEG quality 12 maximum large file, progressive scans 3. 

I'm also not entirely sure what all the other JPEG save settings are all about such as

 

  1. JPEG (JPG, JPEG,JPE
  2.  2000 (JPF, JPX, JP2, J2K, JPC)
  3. JPEG STEREO (JPS) 

Is there a big difference between them all in terms of size, quality & compression? The image attached is of my general saving choice of JPEG options. How does it look? 

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4 replies

Imaginerie
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 9, 2022

One thing that is helpful to see what works is to use the "export as" menu. It shows you a before/after, with all the parameters updating in real time. The level of compression will depend greatly on the image. Lots of different colours will degrade greatly (I am simplifying here) if you dial down the "quality slider), big area of sky and water, where the colour variation is minimal will fare better at those low settings. It has to be seen to be understood.

When you see what your settings will be, use the standard "save as" JPEG to control the resolution as I don't think you can use 300 dpi in the "export as" menu (It's the new save for web!)
@Rob_Cullenlink is very informative!

D Fosse
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 9, 2022

You could argue that quality 12 defeats the whole purpose of saving to jpeg in the first place.

 

It's important to understand that jpeg compression is always destructive at any quality level. There is no such thing as  "maximum" quality with jpeg. If you really want maximum quality, don't use jpeg at all.

 

As long as the file will be somewhat degraded anyway, it's better to see it as a tradeoff, and to determine the optimal balance between file size and visual quality. And seen this way, the best "value for money" is often around 8 or 9. There is still very little immediately visible degradation, but the size reduction is substantial.

 

After all, the whole point of jpeg is to reduce file size. So you might as well maximize payoff.

 

I don't think "progressive" is used very much these days. That was for those extremely slow dial-up connections of the old days, so that you could at least see that there was an image there while you waited for it to load.

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 9, 2022

An informative site link-

JPG COMPRESSION EXPLAINED by Jeffrey Friedl

 

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
Participant
November 9, 2022

Thanks alot for linking to such useful information.

Regards

Ali Apps

Legend
November 9, 2022

2000 is not a type of JPEG, confusing huh! JPEG 2000 is an entirely different format (invented by the JPEG people). It's not used on the web. Don't use it unless someone tells you they need it. 

JPG, JPEG, JPE are all different ways to name the same thing (normal JPEG).

 

The quality settings when you save are very important. A file can be terrible quality, or ten times the size you need. Experiment.