96 Macworld • December 2019FEATURE
might not know which option to take because so
many choices appear similar.
To follow along, select any image in Photos.
Now, in the File > Export menu, you see two
options: Export 1 Photo and Export Unmodified
Original for 1 Photo.
The second submenu item is easier to explain
first. When you import media into Photos, it retains
the original. Any changes you apply to it are stored
as a series of modifications. In the library catalogue
and when you view an image, you see the modified
version. Choose to export an unmodified original,
and Photos copies exactly what was originally
imported. It’s useful that the app retains the
original, instead of only storing modified forms, in
case you want to discard all your edits or export an
image to edit again in another piece of software.
Most people routinely use the choice above it,
however: Export X Photo(s). When you select that
option, Photos offers an export dialog that has a
lot of menus. (If you don’t see all the menus in the
figure, click the downward-pointing arrow, and it
will open to reveal more choices)
No matter what format the image was in when
imported, you may select among PNG, JPEG and
TIFF in the Photo Kind menu. With PNG and TIFF
exports, all the detail of the original is preserved,
and there’s no option for lower quality.
With JPEG, however, you can pick an option in
JPEG Quality that reduces file size by having less
perfect fidelity to the original image. The lower
quality you choose, the blurrier and more pixellated