# Saving as TIFF in photoshop question...



## themonko (Jan 24, 2005)

When saving in TIFF format, I realize it is better for editing because you don't lose quality on each save.  But are you suppose to use NO compression to conserve the lossless state of quality?  Or is it okay to use compression?  And which compression is best for size and quality?

Thanks!!


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## santino (Jan 25, 2005)

the higher the compression the worst is quality. no compression guarantee


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## santino (Jan 25, 2005)

the higher the compression the worst the quality. only no compression guarantees loseless quylity. you gotta try some prefences to decide whats best for you.


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## Daniel (Jan 25, 2005)

santino said:
			
		

> the higher the compression the worst the quality. only no compression guarantees loseless quylity.



Hmmm I dont think this is right. You can compress data lossless (Winzip for example compresses data lossless). But I was wondering the same as themonko, if the offered compression methods when you save the TIFF are indeed lossless compressions.


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## santino (Jan 25, 2005)

zip is something totally different. we speak about tiff, zip has to be uncompressed before you can read (open) it, tiff's are compressed and don't have to be uncompressed --> you will lose quality.


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## Daniel (Jan 25, 2005)

One of the compression options you have is ZIP, one is JPEG and something else. Is the ZIP compression using the algorithm of the standard ZIP format or is it just called like that?


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## santino (Jan 25, 2005)

well, I don't think so (but dunno). jpg2000 is pretty good, but I think ps doesn't support it.


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## Daniel (Jan 25, 2005)

I was searching the net and found this here on a different forum:



> There are options for saving TIFFs as compressed files, but in most cases, this is lossless compression. Your compressed TIFFs will be smaller than uncompressed TIFFs but larger (probably much larger) than JPEGs. One of the options in some programs is to save a TIFF using JPEG compression; this is lossy. All other common TIFF compression options are lossless.
> 
> TIFF compression is only somewhat widely supported. Most TIFF implementations support LZW compression. Many do not support other compression options, so if you save your TIFF using the ZIP compression option, for instance, don't be surprised if a different program can't read it, or if your local lab, which says it can handle TIFFs, can't read your files. Uncompressed TIFF is a pretty safe option for compatibility.


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## Alison (Jan 25, 2005)

I always save my TIFFs as uncompressed. They are big files, but worth the image quality for me.


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## Digital Matt (Jan 25, 2005)

LZW compression with tiffs is lossless, as well as zip.  I use lzw compression, and it is readable by most software.  Tiffs in general aren't widely accepted on PCs, but Adobe software, and most graphic software will have no problams, and most image viewers have no problem.  Irfanview can display tiffs with layers as well.


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## themonko (Jan 25, 2005)

Looks like I wasn't the only one with the question.  So to wrap-up, if I am going to compress, LZW or ZIP is the way to go.

Thanks for all the feedback!!


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