Best format to same edited images for later use in a photo book [was: phonebook]

[Mother3941]

Currently making a large phonebook. Have given up on organizer--to complicated and slow--and have set up my own filing system.  So in making preliminary adjustments (i.e. before making the book) I import an image into the PSE editor, make adjustments and then save back to my files. When I save the image, for inclusion in a photo book at a later day, I have a choice of different formats. I Have been saving in jpeg but someone said I should save in PDF. I believe the reason was that with PDF I'd maintain quality for the book, could send to friends, plus I could print the image independently in high quality at a later date with or without PSE.  However I'm worried that by using PDFs the size of the future photo book will be tremendous. Does anyone have any thoughts on what I'm doing?  Thank you. I'm on a MacBook Pro using Mojave 10.14.3 with Photoshop elements 2018.

EAS

[John Waller]

To clarify: are you making a Photo Book or a Phone Book?

Sounds like you mean a Photo Book.

[Mother3941]

Photo book---damm automatic spell checker has done this to me several times.  Thanks.

[MichelBParis · Accepted solution]

Mother3941  wrote

Currently making a large phonebook. Have given up on organizer--to complicated and slow--and have set up my own filing system.  So in making preliminary adjustments (i.e. before making the book) I import an image into the PSE editor, make adjustments and then save back to my files. When I save the image, for inclusion in a photo book at a later day, I have a choice of different formats. I Have been saving in jpeg but someone said I should save in PDF. I believe the reason was that with PDF I'd maintain quality for the book, could send to friends, plus I could print the image independently in high quality at a later date with or without PSE.  However I'm worried that by using PDFs the size of the future photo book will be tremendous. Does anyone have any thoughts on what I'm doing?  Thank you. I'm on a MacBook Pro using Mojave 10.14.3 with Photoshop elements 2018.

EAS

Many questions...

The main one is the difference between the PDF format, which is a printing format and jpeg or other image formats like  .psd, .tif, .png.

When you want to print a photo book, you'll have to consider the requirements from your printing provider. They may require (or prefer) the PDF format which means a single multipage PDF file for the whole book (plus a couple for the cover). Or, most online book printing services provide creations softwares (online or offline pages creation) in which case they will mostly require jpegs.

The PDF format deals with printing pages which may include not only bitmap photos but also text and vector or shape items. It may include compressed jpeg photos or uncompressed (or lossless compressed) .tif or .psd format. So, in itself a PDF does not guarantee the best quality. In practice, you either send a single multipage pdf to the printer or you upload all your pages, generally in high quality jpegs and the provider cares for the pdf output.

A photobook may include many pages (even more than what the organizer book composition feature allows).

I recommend preparing each page in a non compressed format allowing for layers (bitmap, text and shapes) like .psd or .tiff.

That way, you can edit the pages before sending the pages to the printing provider. Apart from the organizer feature, you can't create the multipage pdf yourself in Elements. You could create a 'Photoshop PDF' file from each page, but not the final multipage one. Anyway, that 'Photoshop PDF' format would be huge in size, because it stores together a real PDF version (Illustrator) whith a full .psd layered file.

So, keep it simple. Create your pages in .psd or .tiff format. When you are ready, use either the 'process multiple files' command in the editor or the 'export as new files' command in the organizer to create a high quality jpeg for all pages. Upload those pages to your Internet printing service. If you don't intend  to edit further your book pages after the book is printed, you may delete the .psd or .tiff pages.

[Mother3941]

Thanks MichelBParis.  You have generously help me on the project several times and I am attempting to use your previous advice of making single pages so I can re-arrange and add more than 72 pages (or whatever the PSE program permits). Let me absorb your comments and think this thing through. I'll then come back on the forum for advice. I really appreciate you help!

EAS