96 ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TODIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
The Absolute Minimum
Most image editors provide numerous choices when saving files. The most popular
file formats are GIF, JPEG, and TIFF. The TIFF format is the photographer’s format;
use it to save and transport files between applications. Here are some other tips
related to file formats:
■ Photoshop Elements can open files created in Photoshop and vice versa.
■ Web browsers can only open and display GIF, JPEG, and PNG files, and noth-
ing else.
■ The GIF file format is used for the Web almost exclusively because it has a
limited color palette of 256 colors.
■ JPEG compresses images using a “lossy” compression technique. Each time
the file is saved, data disappears.
■ Open and then save the best images taken with your digital camera as TIFF
files after importing them from your camera.
■ If you are doing substantial work on an image and use a Photoshop product,
save it in the Photoshop format. You can later convert it to TIFF format if nec-
essary.
■ JPEG2000 is a superior file format that hasn’t yet taken off.