.PNG, or .TIF ..... Which is best lossless format

[Gary R]

to use when changing .jpg's to another format?

 

[fzuccaro]

Like everything else it depends...

What are you going to do with the image?

PNG stands for 'Portable Network Graphics' and is best suited for server side/web graphics. It supports up to 48 bit images I think (huge). It also does 8 bit (256 color) like a GIF would.

TIFF is somewhat proprietary and comes in more variations. All TIFF's support a variety of compression schemes like LZW, etc. Newer TIFF can also support JPG compression as well.

If the image is a JPG, why not just leave it at that? You are not going to improve it (except by image editing). What you got is what you got.

A 1 MB TIFF cooks into approximately the following file sizes:*

660K for a PNG-24 bit
227K for a JPG at 100%
113K for a JPG at 50%

*These figures are arbitrary and dependent on the source image. Your results may vary.

Here are two good websites to peek at:

http://www.scantips.com/basics09.html

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/

FZ

 

[Gary R]

Well, from I gather .jpg's always lose quality each time they're edited and saved, I was wanting something where I can edit the picture be it a photo, or drawing, and still keep high quality with as little loss as possible.

Am using W98SE and currently the "ArcSoft PhotoStudio 2000" (Version: 4.1.2c) that came with my Scanner. Would like to step up a bit but don't know exactly what to get & what I can afford if can't find freeware.

 

[fzuccaro]

Okay, then you should choose TIFF with no compression. Some folks say to also save in the 24 bit BMP format as well since twenty years from know at least one of these should still survive.

Will your scanning software also write a TIFF upon scanning? Probably will. Root around the settings. If it will scan in BMP that would be good too. Definately check out the website below.


Here's an excellent site that ponders these very issues:

www.cywarp.com/FAQ_TimeCapsules.htm


Here is a free image utility written by a kid in Bosnia:

http://www.irfanview.com/

 

[hewee]

Gary,

If they are of pictures your want to keep I would not compress then to jpg because it is a bad formant. If your going to keep the bmp images also then your always have the better bmp to use later. You may want to print or make your pictures later so to do that you need to keep a good format. JPG artifacts will make your pictures look bad.

Lots of great reading hear so bookmark this site.
http://www.scantips.com/

Image File Formats - Which format?
http://www.scantips.com/basics09.html

So for Photographic Images, The Best Quality for Archived Master is TIF or PNG
(no JPG artifacts)