What is the best format to save scanned pictures in if in the future you would like to edit them.?

Question

pdf or jpeg?

Answer 1

If you have the file space, TIFF is the best format for future editing. But it eats up a lot of space.

PDF is a higher resolution then JPEG, but not compatible with as many programs.

So it depends on what editing programs you use and what they are compatible with. It won't do you any good to save in a format that your editing software can't deal with.

Answer 2

If your camera saves the file in jpg and you don't modify the image, keep it as a jpg. If you modify the image, save it as a tif or psd (photoshop).

Jpeg uses lossy compression. To make the file smaller, it throws away information and then uses logic to replace that information when displayed. Everytime you open a jpg, edit it, and save it again, you are damaging the image.

Tif is an uncompressed format and will not lose quality. you can then make a copy of that image in the jpg format for sharing. In other words, you have a tif archive image and a jpeg final version for sharing and putting on the web.

If your camera supports the RAW format, that is the best. It is a much larger file, but has all of the visual information you will need in the future.

Hard drives are getting cheaper every year. It's a good idea to invest in an external hard drive and back up your images for future protection.

Answer 3

TIFF is generally accepted as the best format to save pictures. The reason is that TIFF has what known as lossless compression.

JPEG (as with many other formats like GIFF and a few others) compresses the files (shrinks files by shortcutting actual mapping of where each pixel goes) to save on file space. The drawback is that when you edit the file, a new compression occurs. Then if you edit that, compression again. So when you keep compressing an compressed image, the image degrades (like copies of copies, it looks worse and worse).

PDF is great with the file size, but it's meant more for documents rather than photo/photo editing. So an original will look great but the degradation will be even quicker than JPEG.

TIFF has a better encoding that prevents the compression degradation. Ideally a RAW file is best (original scanning and mapping) but it's HUGE. TIFF's compression will save some space but not a whole lot. But if add up savings here and there, then you'll be able to squeeze in some extra pictures on say a hard-drive. So use TIFF if you can.

P.S. One thing I may recommend is to burn a CD/DVD once you have enough to fill one. That way you'll always have the original, unadulterated, and you can delete to save space on your hard-drive.

Answer 4

TIFF is the best format to save a scan. It is uncompressed, meaning you have all the digital information intact.

jpeg/jpg is a compressed format-you loose info when you compress.

Also, duplicate the file before you work on it, saving an original TIFF without any editing.

If you don't have the choice of TIFF, use PSD - photoshop.

Answer 5

Just about all software can deal with JPEG

Answer 6

jpeg