I was wondering if there are any disadvantages in saving a file as a Photoshop .psd file as opposed to a tiff?
(Unflattened 16bit images)
I can see one advantage is the slightly reduced file size but was wondering if I would/could encounter any problems at a later date.
Which of the above would you recommend for saving converted,adjusted master files?
Thanks,
Posted by Scott Bacon on March 25, 2006 at 11:10 AM
One disadvantage is that .psd is an Adobe proprietary format, where as .tif is an open standard. If Adobe ever decided to do away with .psd, they could - but not likely. Since Adobe Photoshop is pretty much the industry standard for image manipulation, you can feel fairly confident that .psd will be around for the forseeable future.
One big advantage is the ability to save layers in .psd.
FWIW, I archive my images as .psd. I feel that if this format is ever to go away, there will be plenty of warning and I can convert my archive.
You can actually save layers in .tiff files as well,at least you can in CS2, not sure about earlier versions,hence one of the reasons I wasn't sure of the pros and cons of each.
Something else I was also curious about was the ability to create slideshows,for instance,using a folder of psd files rather than tiffs??
Posted by Brent Murphy on March 31, 2006 at 12:03 PM
There was actually another thread about this same issue a couple months ago, here.
Based on that discussion, and personal experience, the only disadvantage to PDF is that it's proprietary, but as mentioned, that shouldn't be a concern. Either one should work equally well, with smaller file sizes for PSD. Oh, and yes you can save layers in TIFF, even back in PS7. Not sure about earlier versions than that.
Quality wise there is no difference between the two files.
You will get all of the same digital info in an image from both.
The only real difference is in the save compression they use.
The options you have with a TIFF file (LZW and ZIP) are more powerful than the PSD one is.
There is one great benefit to using both though.
If you use just the PSD for all of your original files,
and then use the TIFF for all other versions and corrections of that file,
all you have to do is look at the file extension to know right away which is which
and you will never get them confused or mixed up later on no matter where you keep them.
I'm about to have a Spring clean on the computer and rather than have an assortment of tiff and psd files,as I have at the moment,I really wanted to choose one or the other, or at least get the hard drive a little more organized.
Thanks for the link to that thread,I shall have a good read.
That's also an excellent suggestion about choosing tiff or psd depending on whether the image is corrected/completed or not.
I use TIF format exclusively. In my opinion, they have two big advantages over PSD format: TIF is not proprietary, and TIFs can be losslessly compressed to reduce file size. Since both can be saved with layers now, it makes sense for me to minimize the file size as much as possible. After all, hard drive space is neither cheap nor unlimited!
Discussion
6 repliesI was wondering if there are any disadvantages in saving a file as a Photoshop .psd file as opposed to a tiff?
(Unflattened 16bit images)
I can see one advantage is the slightly reduced file size but was wondering if I would/could encounter any problems at a later date.
Which of the above would you recommend for saving converted,adjusted master files?
Thanks,
One big advantage is the ability to save layers in .psd.
FWIW, I archive my images as .psd. I feel that if this format is ever to go away, there will be plenty of warning and I can convert my archive.
HTH.
Thanks for your input.
You can actually save layers in .tiff files as well,at least you can in CS2, not sure about earlier versions,hence one of the reasons I wasn't sure of the pros and cons of each.
Something else I was also curious about was the ability to create slideshows,for instance,using a folder of psd files rather than tiffs??
Based on that discussion, and personal experience, the only disadvantage to PDF is that it's proprietary, but as mentioned, that shouldn't be a concern. Either one should work equally well, with smaller file sizes for PSD. Oh, and yes you can save layers in TIFF, even back in PS7. Not sure about earlier versions than that.
You will get all of the same digital info in an image from both.
The only real difference is in the save compression they use.
The options you have with a TIFF file (LZW and ZIP) are more powerful than the PSD one is.
There is one great benefit to using both though.
If you use just the PSD for all of your original files,
and then use the TIFF for all other versions and corrections of that file,
all you have to do is look at the file extension to know right away which is which
and you will never get them confused or mixed up later on no matter where you keep them.
Many thanks for your advice on the subject.
I'm about to have a Spring clean on the computer and rather than have an assortment of tiff and psd files,as I have at the moment,I really wanted to choose one or the other, or at least get the hard drive a little more organized.
Thanks for the link to that thread,I shall have a good read.
That's also an excellent suggestion about choosing tiff or psd depending on whether the image is corrected/completed or not.
Many thanks,