Photoshop is our must-use software when editing various images. It is powerful and supports dozens of file formats, so it can well support a variety of applications. Faced with so many file formats in Photoshop, which format should you use? Beginners are often confused. It doesn't matter, after reading this article, you will know how Photoshop interacts with other application software through the file formats it supports.
File formats are a format for saving files in different ways. In Photoshop, it mainly includes inherent formats (PSD), application software exchange formats (EPS, DCS, Filmstrip), proprietary formats (GIF, BMP, Amiga IFF, PCX, PDF, PICT, PNG, Scitex CT, TGA), Mainstream formats (JPEG, TIFF), other formats (Photo CD YCC, FlshPix).
inherent format
Photoshop's inherent format PSD reflects Photoshop's unique functions and optimization of functions. For example: PSD format can open and save images faster than other formats, save layers and masks well, and the compression scheme will not cause data loss, etc. . However, few applications can support this format. Only software like CorelPhoto-pain and Adobe After Effects support PSD and can process each layer of the image. Some image processing software is only limited to processing flat Photoshop files, such as ACDSee 3.0 and other software, while most other software cannot support the inherent format of Photoshop.
interchange format
1. EPS format
EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) is the most important format in our image processing work. It is widely used in graphics and layout design in Mac and PC environments, and is used for printing on PostScript output devices. Almost every painting program and most page layout programs allow saving of EPS documents. In Photoshop, convert to EPS format through the Place command in the File menu (Note: the Place command only supports EPS illustrations).
It is recommended that when you load an image into software such as Adobe Illustrator and QuarkXPress, the best choice is EPS. However, because the image size in the EPS format is too large during the saving process, it is recommended that you do not use the EPS format if you are just saving images. If your file is going to be printed to a non-PostScript printer, it is best not to use the EPS format to avoid printing problems. You can use TIFF or JPEG formats instead.
2. DCS format
DCS is a variant of the EPS format developed by Quark, called Desk Color Separation (DCS). Working with QuarkXPress, PageMaker and other applications that support this format, DCS facilitates color separation printing. When Photoshop uses the DCS format, it must be converted to CMYK four-color mode.
3. Filmstrip format
Filmstrip is a file conversion format proprietary to Adobe Premiere (Adobe's video editing application software) and Photoshop. It should be noted that Photoshop can modify each frame of Premiere images through the Filmstrip format at will, but it cannot change the size of the Filmstrip document, otherwise, it will not be saved back to Premiere. Likewise, files created in Photoshop cannot be converted to Filmstrip format.
proprietary format
1. GIF format
GIF is the most commonly used format for outputting images to web pages. GIF uses LZW compression and is limited to colors within 256 colors. The GIF format is represented by two codes: 87a and 89a. GIF87a strictly supports opaque pixels. GIF89a can control which areas are transparent, therefore, reducing the size of the GIF even more. If you want to use the GIF format, you must convert to Indexed Color mode so that the number of colors becomes 256 or less. In Photoshop, use the "Save as" command to save GIF87a; to save GIF89a, you must use "File"/"Export"/"GIF89a Export".
2. PNG format
PNG was created specifically for the web. The PNG format is a file format that compresses images onto the Web. Unlike the GIF format, the PNG format is not limited to 256 colors.
3. BMP format
BMP (Windows Bitmap) is the inherent format of Microsoft Pain developed by Microsoft. This format is supported by most software. The BMP format uses a lossless compression method called RLE, which has no impact on image quality.
4. PICT format
PICT is one of the common data file formats on Mac. If you want to save the image in a format that can be opened on a Mac, PICT is a better choice than JPEG because it opens quite quickly. In addition, if you want to use Photoshop on a PC to open a PICT file on a Mac, it is recommended that you install QuickTime on the PC, otherwise, you will not be able to open the PICT image.
5. PDF format
PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format created by Adobe Systems that allows electronic documents to be viewed on the screen. PDF files can also be embedded in HTML documents on the Web.
6. Scitex CT format
Scitex CT format supports grayscale images, RGB images, and CMYK images. Photoshop can open digitized images from image processing equipment such as Scitex.
7. TGA format
TrueVision's TGA (Targa) and NuVista video boards can transfer images and animations to TVs, and video application software on PCs widely supports the TGA format.
8. PCX format
PCX is the extension of the native format of PC PaintBrush, an ancient program under DOS, so this format is no longer popular.
9. Amiga IFF format
The Amiga was developed by Commodore. Since the company has withdrawn from the computer market, the Amiga IFF format will gradually be abandoned.
Mainstream format
1. JPEG format
JPEG (named by the Joint Photographic Experts Group) is the most commonly used image format. It is the most effective and basic lossy compression format and is supported by most graphics processing software. JPEG format images are also widely used in Web production. If you don't have high requirements for image quality but need to store a large number of pictures, using JPEG is undoubtedly a good way. However, for image output printing requirements, you'd better not use the JPEG format, because it improves the compression quality at the expense of image quality. You can use graphic formats such as EPS, DCS.
2. TIFF format
TIFF (Tag Image File Format) was developed by Aldus in the early days of the Mac to standardize scanned images. It is the most widespread image printing format across Mac and PC platforms. TIFF uses LZW lossless compression, which greatly reduces image size. In addition, the most exciting feature of the TIFF format is the ability to save channels, which is very beneficial for you to process images.
other formats
1. Photo CD YCC format
Kodak's Photo CD and Pro Photo CD use YCC color mode. When opening a Photo CD file, you can convert the YCC image to Photoshop's Lab color mode. But Photoshop cannot save files in Photo CD format.
2. FlshPix format
Developed by Kodak, Live Picture, and a few other companies, Photoshop can open and save images in the FlshPix format.