Learn the Type of Digital Files

There are a great many digital file types to choose from. What is the best file type for you?

RAW

The native format that digital cameras, mostly DSLRs, use. RAW is proprietary; meaning Nikon RAW is not the same as Canon or Sony RAW. The downside of being proprietary is that a given photo editing program cannot read every version of RAW that’s out there. However, this is getting better with time and plug-ins for the more popular editing programs are available. The benefit of capturing your images in the RAW format is that the image is not processed. This allows the photographer the most control afterwards in post-processing.

JPEG (JPG)

JPG is possibly the most popular file type and is very common for web applications. When a photograph is saved as a JPG it is compressed. The compression process causes some loss of data, which means some loss of picture quality. Each time you save the image you will lose a little more data and the picture will be degraded just a little. It takes many generations of saving the file before it’s noticeable to the eye so don’t let that stop you from using the JPG format. JPG is well suited for emailing and uploading to the web and prints can be made too.

GIF

The GIF format has been around much longer than JPG and is not as powerful. The GIF format is also a data compression format, but GIF files are limited to 256 colors, compared to the JPG format that allows for tens of thousands of colors. The strength of the GIF format is when an image has large areas that of the same color. Because of the limited number of colors and the ability to have transparent backgrounds, GIFs are well suited for line drawings and logos.

PNG

The PNG format can be thought of as an improved GIF format with a lot of the functionality of GIF but not limited to 256 colors. Additionally, PNG does not lose data during compression so picture quality does not degrade either.

TIFF

The TIFF format is the most popular format that does not lose data during compression. It is very like that if your digital camera offers something besides JPG and RAW it will be TIFF.

PSD and PSP

Many image editing programs use their own proprietary format too. For example Photoshop’s native format is PSD while Paintshop Pro uses PSP. These formats are fine for use within the editing programs, but not for long-term archiving.