Fairly Novice Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter E. Barry Bruyea
  • Start date Start date
E

E. Barry Bruyea

I know this may not be exactly the best forum to ask this question,
but I'm curious as to whether printers 'react' differently depending
on which file format is used to print a picture. In other words, is
quality a factor when printing a TIFF, PSD, PDD, JPG, PCX etc? Does
any given program produce the best quality?
 
Tricky question. When you convert a TIFF to a JPG you can control the amount
of information in the output file. This can effect the print quality but I
guess that's not the question you are asking. I think what you want to know
is.... If the two file types contained the same amount of information (not
the same thing as file size), then which would produce the best print
results?

I suspect that uncompressed formats like TIFF will produce better results
than JPG even when the JPG compression ratio is 1:1 - simply because the
decompresson process isn't perfect.
 
I know this may not be exactly the best forum to ask this question,
but I'm curious as to whether printers 'react' differently depending
on which file format is used to print a picture. In other words, is
quality a factor when printing a TIFF, PSD, PDD, JPG, PCX etc? Does
any given program produce the best quality?
Click to expand...


Tif psd bmp are examples of lossless file formats. When a picture is
compressed, alot of picture information is removed to reduce the size.
You can experiment and see for yourself the quality diffrence from a
large tiff to a compressed jpg.

When I use photoshop, I generally use scans at 300dpi tiff format. I
will save it as Tiff from the scanner output. If you convert tiff from
a saved jpg, you will not restore the original information that was
removed.

Ive gone off base from your original question in hopes of answering
some future questions if you are considering archiving or photoshop
editing. I make a general rule, If you edit and print and archive
locally, use tiff and save layers. If you send anything out, send
copys saved as jpg

As far as jpg and printing, In some cases you will see big
differences depending on the colors and paper and ink , etc etc. Dark
colors for example would tend to be very grainy or blue and green
noise when compressed and printed from low quality jpg as compared to
tiff. The information just isnt there or may not have been captured
from the get go.

No one program will produce the best quality print. I can use a
mediocre photo editor and print with great results while a friend can
use photoshop and not know what he is doing. Learn how to adjust
levels, learn about dpi resolution etc etc.. It will really help in
your final product output.

finally, check out rec.photo.digital
you will find very talented photoshop/corel users, inkjetters and
professional printers alike having these same type of discussions.
Very informative and plenty of links to study if you lurk around and
ask questions.
 
Tricky question. When you convert a TIFF to a JPG you can control the amount
of information in the output file. This can effect the print quality but I
guess that's not the question you are asking. I think what you want to know
is.... If the two file types contained the same amount of information (not
the same thing as file size), then which would produce the best print
results?

I suspect that uncompressed formats like TIFF will produce better results
than JPG even when the JPG compression ratio is 1:1 - simply because the
decompresson process isn't perfect.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I appreciate the info.
 
Tif psd bmp are examples of lossless file formats. When a picture is
compressed, alot of picture information is removed to reduce the size.
You can experiment and see for yourself the quality diffrence from a
large tiff to a compressed jpg.

When I use photoshop, I generally use scans at 300dpi tiff format. I
will save it as Tiff from the scanner output. If you convert tiff from
a saved jpg, you will not restore the original information that was
removed.

Ive gone off base from your original question in hopes of answering
some future questions if you are considering archiving or photoshop
editing. I make a general rule, If you edit and print and archive
locally, use tiff and save layers. If you send anything out, send
copys saved as jpg

As far as jpg and printing, In some cases you will see big
differences depending on the colors and paper and ink , etc etc. Dark
colors for example would tend to be very grainy or blue and green
noise when compressed and printed from low quality jpg as compared to
tiff. The information just isnt there or may not have been captured
from the get go.

No one program will produce the best quality print. I can use a
mediocre photo editor and print with great results while a friend can
use photoshop and not know what he is doing. Learn how to adjust
levels, learn about dpi resolution etc etc.. It will really help in
your final product output.

finally, check out rec.photo.digital
you will find very talented photoshop/corel users, inkjetters and
professional printers alike having these same type of discussions.
Very informative and plenty of links to study if you lurk around and
ask questions.
Click to expand...


Much appreciated.
 
Back
Top