Monday 26 October 2009

Photoshop: Which File Format Should You Use?

By Jeanene Fisher

As you have become more familiar with Adobe Photoshop, have you noticed that the program allows you to save your images in several different formats or types of files?

An understanding of these three different formats is necessary when working in Adobe Photoshop. With this knowledge, you will be able to make the most of your digital photo projects.

While Photoshop has many different types of image file, I've listed and described the three most commonly used.

PSD: This is the most important file format for digital photo editing. A PSD file is a Photoshop file format. There are two main reasons for using PSD when working on your digital photos. To begin with, PSD files allow you to work in layers and channels. This saves your work without compressing the layers. This does result in a large file size. Secondly, PSD files do not lose their image quality as you work on them. Since there is no compression when the file is saved, there is no lost data. Save your work as a PSD file until you are finished editing your image. Then you can save it in a more appropriate file for each particular project.

JPEG: JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. This is one of the most common and well-known file formats. Because JPEG files are compressed, the size of the file is smaller. However, with compression, JPEG images will lose data each time you change the file and then resave it. But JPEG files work will on the Web and have a variety of applications.

GIF, or Graphic Interchange Format, is a very popular format used for Web and Internet applications. GIF files are usually small in size, allowing them to load more quickly in Internet browsers. These GIF files are actually limited to a maximum of 256 colors.

Photoshop offers other file formats; however, they are not used very much because they are not Internet use friendly.

For your use, it will be best to save your projects in a PSD file until you are finished editing them. Then, save them in a JPEG or GIF file to save space.

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