 |
| No items matching your keywords were found. |
What is the best quality image file format?
Size of the file does not matter, I only care about quality. I want amazing quality. What is the best format for this?
It depends upon how you use it. For shooting, RAW provides maximum quality and versatility, but does require skill in processing. Simple cameras generally just provide JPEGs.
Adobe has developed a version of RAW called DNG. A few small camera makers use it, and Adobe makes software to convert RAW to DNG. However, there are more arguments against converting than there are arguments for it. If Adobe could convince the world to drop RAW and adopt DNG, their cost of doing business would drop and their profits would rise. RAW works perfectly well.
For posting on-line, JPEG allows a high level of compression for small files that are quickly uploaded, look fine at 100% on-line but can look terrible if stolen and printed. High JPEG compression does offer a bit of protection against theft. If text is made part of the images, JPEG compression artifacts can make it look poor. PNG combines photographs and text very well, though there is not the same degree of compression, making somewhat larger files. Before PNG, GIF was a common web-format. It too can preserve the crispness of type, but it is largely unsuited for photographs.
In the world of publishing, TIFF is a very common file format. It is uncompressed for the most part and maintains the high quality of the original image. From a programmers point of view BMP lacks a lot of the versatility of TIFF, but from a user's point of view the image quality is the same. If you were to start being published, you would wisely ask the editor or creative director what format they want, and once your image was processed, you would save it in that format. Most good image processing programs will save in all the common formats.
For storage, keep your camera RAW files intact. As software and your skills improve over the years to come, they will always be there just as they came from the camera. In later years, you can go back and find treasure in them that you might not be able to extract now. Make sure they are safely backed up, because if they are lost, they are lost forever. If you shoot with a simple camera, chances are it does JPEGs. The same thing applies as they too are your originals. The problem with shooting JPEGs is that they are lacking in the rich information of a RAW file, so interpretation in an image processing program is relatively limited.
These are the common formats, but there are many more historic formats. Unless you were in some specific profession that demanded them, they can be pretty much ignored for contemporary photography, printing and web-site creation. However, programs like Photoshop will deal with them all, should you encounter one.
Susan Boyle (BEST quality) - Britains Got Talent