There are a variety of file formats that you need to familiarize yourself with when you're working with images in Photoshop. To simplify, I'm going to divide them into three areas of the workflow: the original source or capture file formats, the working formats or the master file formats, and the output formats created to output your work for specific devices.
Capture formats: JPEG and RAW
When you start with a photograph, the most common file formats are JPEG and RAW. So JPEG is currently the most widely used file format in photography because it's the default file format that mobile devices such as phones capture and it's almost always an option on a digital camera.
Its popularity is based primarily on the fact that JPEG files are really small so you can store a large number of photos on a single device or a card, and they can be written to those devices very quickly.
However, in order to decrease a photograph's file size, the JPEG file format throws away information through a process called lossy compression. So the quality of a JPEG can range greatly depending on how much of that information is thrown away.
Unfortunately, on some devices like mobile phones, we don't often have a lot of control over the amount of compression that's applied to those images. When the highest quality setting or the least amount of compression is applied, it's usually unnoticeable to the eye in most circumstances, but these files have significantly less flexibility when making adjustments such as brightening shadows or darkening highlights in the image after capture.
So when given the option, I would choose not to capture in a lossy compression format like JPEG, but in a RAW format instead. RAW is a generic term for a file format traditionally used to describe images that are captured by a digital camera and more recently by mobile devices.
The primary difference between JPEG and RAW files is that the RAW file format contains all of the data that the sensor captured. So RAW files still apply compression to files, but they do so using a different type of lossless compression, so the quality of the image isn't compromised. This gives RAW files much more flexibility when making edits and enhancements to the image after capture, because there's much more information to work with.
Now, most camera manufacturers have their own proprietary RAW file formats and because they're all written differently, these extensions and file formats will be different. For example, Nikon's RAW files are .NEF files and Canon uses .CRW and Sony uses .ARW, but they still fall under the generic blanket term of being RAW files.
The DNG format, the digital negative, is another RAW file format, but it has a significant difference: it's not a proprietary file format. So the DNG format was created by Adobe with the intent of DNG becoming the archival format for all digital images. So Adobe makes its file specifications available to other software developers and not only do several camera manufacturers capture directly into the DNG format, it's now also available in several mobile devices. In addition, any RAW file from any camera manufacturer can be converted to the DNG file format using Lightroom, or Camera RAW, or the free Adobe DNG Converter.
Working or master formats: PSD, TIFF, and Adobe Cloud Documents
The next group of file formats are used to save what I would refer to as your working or your master files. And they're used primarily when you're saving your multi-layered documents from Photoshop and they include PSD and TIFF and the Adobe Cloud Document format.
PSD and TIFF files save all of Photoshop's features such as layers and masks and type and shape layers and smart objects and paths, and much, much more. They both use lossless compression to decrease the file size, but because it's lossless, the quality of the image isn't compromised.
My personal preference is to save my working files as PSD, but really that's only because TIFF wasn't as robust of a file format when I started working in Photoshop. Today really the biggest difference is just that a TIFF file can save a larger file, up to four gigabytes, whereas PSD files can only save up to two gigs.
Now that Adobe Cloud Document, that's a special format designed to help transfer files across devices. So for example, between Photoshop on the desktop and Photoshop on the iPad. And when you save a document as a cloud document, that file is saved in Adobe's Cloud. And those files have special features such as the ability to save only those portions of a file that have been edited, making it much more efficient to share them between devices over the cloud.
All right, the last group of file formats are used when it comes time to output or to share your files maybe to be printed or to be displayed on a specific device. Now, in most instances, you would want to save a copy of your image, probably resized and optimized for that specific device. To reduce file sizes, these output file formats often flatten and compress images, and that makes it easier to upload or transfer files more quickly.
In addition, if you export or you save a copy that allows you to return to your working file or to that master file, if you need to make changes to individual layers at a later time. So if you're preparing your images to be printed, it's probably best to ask what format the lab or the service provider accepts. Ideally they would request flatten TIFF or PSD files in order to maintain the highest quality possible, but often it's much faster and therefore much more desirable to upload or transfer and print JPEG files.
So if you are sending JPEGs to be printed, just make sure that the quality setting remains high. Now, if you're saving files to view on a screen, such as a phone or a computer, or you're posting images online, JPEG once again is the most common format because of its ability to create those small files that download quickly.
But there are a bunch of specialty formats that I need to at least mention. PNG or Portable Network Graphics is a popular file format to save graphics for the web when the graphic requires a single layered or a flattened file, but still needs to display transparent areas. For example, a PNG file would be an ideal solution for displaying a round logo or a button with rounded edges that require those transparent edge areas because the PNG format will render the smooth edges around that transparency.
The GIF file format is also a single layer or a flattened file format. It has lossy compression applied, but in a different way than a JPEG. To save as a GIF file, you have to convert your image to a different color mode called index color, which only allows 256 colors. Because of that, this file format is also commonly used for graphics like logos or more flat looking artwork. Although the GIF file does support transparency, it only supports one level, which means if you do have that circular logo, the edges are going to look jagged. Because GIFs have the unique ability to contain an animation within the file, today they're most often used for creating ad banners and other short animations to be viewed on screen.
Photoshop also supports several popular video and audio file formats such as .mov or .264, AIFF, and MP3 for working with video and audio within Photoshop's timeline. The Photoshop PDF file format is very convenient when you need to distribute a secure document. For example, you might need to send a client a set of images or a mock up for a design of an unannounced project, which is really important that no one else can see or open. So as you save a Photoshop PDF, the settings enable you to password protect the file from being opened or from being printed.
All right, that wraps up this overview of the most important file formats that you'll run across while you're working with Photoshop and why you choose one over another. Compression: Lossless - no compression. BMP or Bitmap Image File is a format developed by Microsoft for Windows. There is no compression or information loss with BMP files which allow images to have very high quality, but also very large file sizes. JPEG, which stands for Joint Photographic Experts Groups is a âlossyâ format, meaning that the image is compressed to make a smaller file. The compression does create a loss in quality but this loss is generally not noticeable. GIF or Graphics Interchange Format files are widely used for web graphics, because they are limited to only 256 colors, can allow for transparency, and can be animated. PNG or Portable Network Graphics files are a lossless image format originally designed to improve upon and replace the gif format. An EPS or Encapsulated PostScript file is a common vector file type. RAW images are images that are unprocessed that have been created by a camera or scanner.
If you're one of the many people who have found themselves overwhelmed by the sheer number of file formats that Photoshop presents us with when trying to save an image, good news! That's right, out of the 25 file types found in Photoshop's "Save As" dialog box, there's really only a handful of them that most of us will ever use. In this quick guide, we'll look briefly at the essential formats we need to know, or at least be aware of, including the pros and cons of each one and the situations where it makes the most sense to use it!
Of all the file formats that Photoshop supports, the PSD format is probably the most important. PSD stands for "Photoshop Document", and as the name implies, it's Photoshop's native file format. PSD is one of the few file types that fully support all of the powerful features that Photoshop gives us, like layers, layer masks, adjustment layers, channels, paths, and so on. It also serves as your working file. When we open an image in Photoshop, regardless of which file type the image was originally using, Photoshop temporarily converts it into a PSD file behind the scenes so we can work on it with all of Photoshop's tools, commands and features at our disposal.
PSD files are your best choice to serve as your master files and for archiving to CD, DVD or an external hard drive for safe keeping. If you've done any sort of editing work on an image and there's even the slightest chance you'll need to come back to it again at some point in the future, save your work as a Photoshop PSD file. You can easily print your images at home with Photoshop directly from the PSD file, and many commercial printers are now able to accept PSDs as well, although some may still require an EPS or TIFF version of the file instead, so it's always best to check with your printer to make sure you're giving them the format they need."
One of the newer advantages with PSD files is that they can now be imported directly into Adobe InDesign, giving you complete access to the individual layers in the file as you're designing your page layouts. The only real disadvantage to PSD files is that the file size can get very large, especially if you're working on an image with hundreds or even thousands of layers. But with computer hard drives and memory being so cheap these days, it's a small price to pay for the creative freedom that Photoshop and its native PSD file format give us.
The JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) format has been around for nearly 20 years now and has become the most popular and widely used file format for viewing and sharing digital photos. It supports 24-bit color, which means it can reproduce roughly 16.7 million colors, and even the cheapest digital cameras can capture images as JPEG files. Most high end digital SLR cameras give you the option of capturing images in either the JPEG or RAW format. It's important, though, not to confuse "popular" and "widely used" with "professional quality". JPEG is what's called a lossy file format because it compresses the images, which essentially means it takes some of your image information and tosses it out the virtual window, never to be seen again.
It does this to reduce file size, but the more compression you use, the worse your images look. The biggest strength of JPEG files is convenience. Online printing services usually require your photos to be uploaded as JPEG files. If you're capturing JPEG files in your camera, make sure you're capturing the largest, highest quality images possible. Check your camera's instruction manual to find out where the image quality option is in your camera's menu system. One thing you want to avoid doing whenever possible is re-saving JPEG files repeatedly. Each time you open and re-save it, you'll add even more compression to the image, and it doesn't take long for things to get ugly.
The GIF file format, which stands for Graphics Interchange Format, has been around even longer than JPEG, and it's the format of choice for web graphics. Notice I said web graphics, not web photos. When it comes to web design, though, the GIF format is indispensable. The files are well suited for web page layouts, banners and buttons, especially if they contain large areas of solid color. All major web browsers support GIF files and their small file sizes load quickly on the screen. GIF also allows web designers to create simple animations. One major advantage GIF has over the JPEG format, and another reason why it's so important for web designers, is that it supports transparency, although it supports only one level of transparency, meaning a pixel is either transparent or it's not. This can result in harsh edges around graphics if the edge color differs from the color of the background it's placed over.
PNG (Portable Network Graphics) was originally meant to replace the GIF format (PNG also stands for "PNG not GIF"). That never happened and GIF files are still in wide use today, yet the PNG format improves upon the GIF format in nearly every way. It even improves on the JPEG format. While JPEG files support 24-bit color (16.7 million colors), PNG files support up to 48-bit color, giving us more than 1 billion possible colors. That may sound impressive, but even JPEG files support more colors than the human eye can see, so any real world differences between 24 and 48-bit color are minimal at best. The biggest advantage over JPEG is that PNG is a lossless file format, meaning that even though it still compresses images to reduce file size, the compression method it uses does not result in a loss of image quality. You can even re-save the same PNG file multiple times without degrading its quality, whereas JPEG files look worse each time you re-save them. With over a billion possible colors and lossless compression, PNG is a great choice for saving digital photos as high quality originals. The downside, though, is that PNG is not as widely supported as the JPEG format, and PNG does not support CMYK color, which means commercial printers can't use them. PNG's main advantage over GIF files, besides far exceeding GIF's 256 color limit, is that it can reproduce a full 256 levels of transparency compared with GIF's single level, giving us smooth transitions around edges without having to worry about matching the edges with the background color. PNG files are also usually smaller than GIF files, so they'll load even faster in a web browser. Unfortunately, older web browsers may not support the PNG format, which means GIF is still the safest choice when browser compatibility is your main concern. Also, while GIF supports animations, PNG does not.
Like PSD files, TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is one of the few file types that support all of Photoshop's features and is another great choice for archiving your images, with lossless compression that allows you to save photos with the highest possible image quality. The quality comes at a price though, as TIFF files can be very large, especially when compared with JPEG files. Even though TIFF files are capable of storing all of the layers, adjustment layers and other elements you've added in Photoshop, it's generally recommended that you save all those elements in your master PSD file, then use the TIFF format to save a flattened version of the image for print. This makes it easy to tell just from looking at the file extension which version of your image is the master working file (.psd) and which is the flattened, print-ready version (.tif).
EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) is another print industry standard format that's been around for quite a while, but its use has been in decline over the years. EPS files are not really image files in the traditional sense. Instead, they contain a series of instructions for how a printer should reproduce the image. They can be imported into most page layout programs, but the "encapsulated" part means the files are essentially locked and can no longer be modified unless they're re-opened in Photoshop. A preview image must be embedded in the EPS file when you save it in Photoshop if you want it to be viewable onscreen when working in your page layout program, otherwise you won't be able to see it until the layout is printed.
Finally, while most people are familiar with PDF files for viewing, sharing and printing electronic documents (hence the name Portable Document Format), PDF is also gaining in popularity as a great choice for saving images destined for print. Like the PSD and TIFF formats, PDF supports and preserves all of Photoshop's features, including the ability to use spot colors, something the EPS format does not support. PDF gives you the choice of either JPEG compression, complete with a Quality setting to balance image quality with file size, or lossless ZIP compression.
The most important thing to remember is to save your working Photoshop file as an unflattened PSD file to use as your master copy, which will preserve all of your layers, channels and so on in Photoshop's native file format, allowing you to return to your work at any time. From there, you can save a copy of your image in one of the other six formats depending on where the image is headed (print, the web, or a multimedia program) or which format your printer has requested.
There are other file formats in use, but these are the most commonly used ones. We are focusing on working formats for Photoshop. This is the main file format for Photoshop. Itâs the best for using as your working file. It supports RGB, CMYK, LAB and Duotone color spaces. This is great for archiving and working form as it supports all of Photoshopâs features. If you have Maximize Compatibility turned on when you save, it will also save a flattened version in the file. A Psd is the same as a PSD, but supports larger files. A PSD has a file limit of 30,000 pixels or 2 Gb. If you need a larger file, save it as a PSB (Photoshop Big) which supports 300,000 pixels or 4 Exabytes.
TIFF can also be used as an archival format, this is a lossless format, so file sizes can be large. Also supports RGB, CMYK, clipping paths, alpha channels transparency. The most common use for TIFF is a print file. Itâs very common to send a TIFF for offset printing. JPEG is the most common format for saving photos when you need a smaller file size, but because they are compressed, they suffer from generational loss. This means if you keep saving a JPEG file over and over, it will deteriorate in quality. Itâs a delivery format, so I suggest working from your PSD and saving a new JPEG each time you make a change. When you save a JPEG, you will see a quality slider; higher quality looks better but larger file size, lower quality smaller size. Usually around 70% will give the best balance of quality and size.
A GIF file is also used online. It compresses by reducing the number of colors in an image to 256. It creates a Color Look Up Table (CLUT) of 256 colors and remaps all the colors in the image to this color index. It may cause posterization of photos. However, line art and solid colors do very well in GIF. The main use for GIF is small animation files. PNG (pronounced âpingâ) is like GIF, but smaller file size and doesnât support animation. It has the same support of basic transparency as GIF. PNG 24 is a high quality lossless format and supports 256 levels of transparency. This would be a good alternative to JPG, except the files are much larger. It supports lossless compression to there is no loss of quality. This format is used online, but more common for software and apps. Worth mentioning is PDF for high-quality print outputs that contain photos and text, and it is the main output format used by Graphic Designers. Although, this is not a working format, it is a common output format for print-ready documents.
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In summary, PSD remains the cornerstone for working files, with TIFF and PDF offering strong archival and print-ready options. JPEG, PNG, GIF, and EPS cover everyday web and print needs, while RAW and DNG provide maximum latitude for initial capture and post-processing flexibility. The choice of format depends on whether you prioritize editability, archival quality, or device-specific delivery.