Creative-Designs File Saving Formats with PhotoImpact

FILE SAVING FORMATS

Often we're not too sure how to save an image or graphic we have made. Below is an explanation of what each file extension means and the best way for you to save your image when using PhotoImpact.

When working with PhotoImpact save your work regularly as .UFO - this is a propriety format for PhotoImpact only.

The rule of thumb is: If your image is text-based or contains mostly clipart, line art or other type drawings it's advisable to save as a .GIF.

If you have an image, photograph or digital art it's best saved as a .JPEG or for better quality.

For archiving images and artwork whether it's being saved to a hard-drive, CD or DVD saving as a .TIFF is always advisable.

For E-Mail and Internet always optimise your image and save as a .JPG or .GIF

Progressive - vs - Standard To ensure the best compatibilty when saving Standard is best. The whole image is cached with Standard before it reveals the whole picture.

Progressive will load quicker as it progressively reveals the image in a browser or program so you see it line by line as it's read.

Subsampling does not make a great deal of difference for most images. Subsampling reduces the file size without losing quality. In few cases (very geometric patterns) using no subsampling will give better images but less compression.

.JPEG or .JPG

Joint Photographics Expert Group

This is a standard set by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) for compressing still images. It is a 'lossy' which means some quality is lost when the image is compressed too much and photos become a bit 'blocky'. Lossy compression reduces a file by permanently removing certain information, especially redundant information. When the file is uncompressed (opened) only a part of the original information is there (the user may not notice it) Most lossy compression is used for video and sound where the loss it not so noticeable with motion pictures. Jpeg is commonly used due to its variable compression range. Jpegs are saved on a sliding resolution scale based on the quality desired. An image can be saved in high quality for photographic printing, medium to medium low for the web and low for attaching to emails. Jpgs are not suitable for graphs, charts or explanatory illustrations as it makes text look fuzzy at low resolutions - in this instance, compressing an image as a .gif is much better. Equally, .gifs are not suitable for photographs.

.GIF

Graphic Interchange Format

Saving a file as a .gif is ideal if your image contains text or lines, and/or is small in size. .gif images can only be images made of up to 256 colours, (8-bit) so if your image is not loaded with colour and detail, you may want to save it as a .gif, otherwise the .png format maybe better. When an image is large in size, it sometimes needs to be compressed, and doing so can reduce the clarity of your picture. You can sometimes avoid that if you're image can be saved as a .gif. Think of it this way: When you have an image that is made of many different colours, it becomes “bigger” in file size. The larger a file, the longer it takes to load on a web page.
The .gif file format is also best used for animation. Files in .gif format contain attributes that are excellent for animating an image such as their ability to keep their layers transparent when an image is going through its animation. For help with saving images with a transparent background, see the excellent tutorial written by Debbie Hardisty at http://www.debisty.com/

.PNG

Portable Network Graphics

A .png is a format to store pictures and can be compared to a .gif or .tiff as it's lossless. Many line art, PhotoShop and Paint Shop Pro graphics are saved as .png. The difference between saving a .gif to a .png is the 24 bit (16+ million colours). Png offers better compression than a .gif and also can be saved on a transparent background like a .gif, but the file size is larger. However, there's no .png animation format and this is one of the main reasons why many use .gif

.UFO

Ulead File for Objects

.UFO is a format solely used in PhotoImpact. The Ulead File for Objects format which consists of the original base image and any additional objects created.

Saving an image as a .ufo is ideal when you want to re-open the file to edit or modify. When saving as a .ufo, it saves each object in the image as a separate layer so that the layers can be changed. A good example of a .ufo image would be an image of a background tile. Say you want to make several different tiles in different colors and textures. You would save your basic tile as a .ufo, and it would retain the layers of your image allowing you to alter the colour and texture. If you save the image in any other file format, the layers will be merged upon saving and closing the file, so that you will not be able to edit them individually again.

.BMP

BitMaP

A .bmp is a file format for images stored in a computerised form. As computers use bits of 1 and 0 to store data, a bitmap is literally a map of bits that form a particular image when rendered to a display, like a computer monitor. The computer display screen is made up of rows and columns of tiny blocks known as pixels. In a bitmap image each pixel is assigned at least one bit to indicate whether the pixel should reflect the background colour or foreground colour, or some other colour. When a bitmap displays a coloured image such as a lake/mountain scene there are several shades of gradient in the colours and lighting. In this case, each pixel in the bitmap might have 16, 24 or 48 bits of information associated with it. The more bits, the greater the resolution and the bigger the file. Because bitmaps store so much information in the highest resolutions they make very beautiful images. However, bitmaps do not rescale well and can become blocky and blurred if reduced when using a graphics program, thus it loses clarity.

.TIFF

Tagged Image File Format

TIFF is a format choice for archiving important images. It is the most universal and widely supported format across all platforms. Tiff supports RGB, CMYK, ... etc. TIFF image files optionally use LZW lossless compression. Lossless means there's no quality loss due to compression. Lossless guarantees that you can always read back exactly what you saved, bit-for-bit without any data corruption/loss. This is a critical factor when archiving master copies of important images. The down side is, the files are usually on the very large side and so unsuitable for web or email.

EXIF

EXchangeable Image File Format

for Digital Camera

Exif is an Exchangeable Image File Format for Digital Still Camera. A file format that was developed by the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association (JEIDA). Most digital cameras support this format. Information is added such as date, camera model, shutter speed, shooting mode and comments to jpeg files and thus exif files are compatible with jpegs. The exif is in general a 'jpg'.

.PDF

Portable Document Format

PDF stands for 'Portable Document Format and is a file format developed by Adobe Systems based on the PostScript page description language. The browser software called Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe Reader are used to view and print PDF files. Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe Reader are provided free and can be used on various computers and operating systems. PDF files can be exchanged between people who use different operating systems, fonts etc. regardless of the differences. PDF is suitable for network use since the file size is relatively small