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Which is better tiff or jpeg. See what "TIF" is in other dictionaries

I present to your attention a fragment of one of the chapters of my future book about landscape photography under the working title "Taking Pictures of the Landscape"

The basic rule of photography with a digital camera says: first we try to get good pictures, and then we process and bring the resulting image "to mind" only later, at work or at home. Therefore, it is important to bring your best photo in the world to your computer safe and sound. Knowledge of the features of various recording formats will help us in this.
If you are an economical person in life, you are faced with a dilemma - which format from the ones available in your beloved camera to use for recording images. Digital cameras today can offer you TIFF, RAW and several gradations of the JPEG format. We will start discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each of them with JPEG, as it is available in any camera today and the most popular in the amateur photographers environment.

JPEG format

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), as its name implies, was created on the initiative of the photographers themselves, it seems, back in the days of Tsar Pea to transfer scanned or computer-generated images. In those days, the amount of computer disk memory was small. For example, at that time the size of the memory of my personal computer was only 20 MB, that is, one today's photograph could fit into it.
In those days, information was transmitted mainly by means of a five-inch floppy disk, so it was important to "ram" the image so that it would not greatly burden the computer's memory with its presence and the quality of the "picture" would not be particularly affected. For this, an already existing algorithm was used, which was used for archiving machine files, arranged according to the principle of combining similar sequences of zeros and ones of machine code. But, unlike machine code, which requires accurate restoration of all the instructions contained in it, we decided that to reduce the size of the file with the image, we can slightly sacrifice its quality, since it is intended for viewing by the human eye, forgiving some inaccuracies. As a result, the developers have received the JPEG format, which allows you to store color images with a depth of up to 24 bits, as well as images in grayscale.
As follows from the biography of this format, its main task is to minimize the space occupied by the image on the disk. This compression is far from free of charge - quality suffers: detail is lost and color is disturbed. This happens to a different extent and depends on the degree of compression and the number of heterogeneous small image elements. If, for example, a landscape with grass and flowers loses quality when compressed, then the image of one blue sky can be easily compressed to a minimum, with almost complete preservation of quality.
Take a look at three zoomed-in JPEG illustrations at different quality (Basic, Norm, and Fine) on the Nikon D70. Although in appearance the difference in quality between them is not very noticeable, but at high magnifications it manifests itself much more significantly, primarily in details.

Dignity
The shortest recording time of the image on the memory card and save space.

disadvantages
Not suitable for high-quality, large-size photographs with many fine details.

For whom

Suitable for beginner amateurs and everyone who is not going to print later pictures larger than 10x15 cm. And in case of insufficient memory on the JPEG card, it will "save" a professional who does not want to miss a great shot. If your camera does not have a different format, then for the sake of quality I recommend using the mode with the lowest compression, usually denoted "fine".

Two stills of the same type, taken in JPEG (left) and TIFF (right) with a LEICA DIGILUX 1. Again, the difference will be noticeable mainly in details and only at high magnification in the form of slight blurring of small details. TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) was created as a universal format for color images. I must say that this format is generally a very curious invention of the Macintosh engineers, since its internal structure can take any bizarre forms. Any other can be added to the tags containing the image itself and describing data on its color, compression, resolution, and the like. Thus, this format has a scalable structure. For example, a file may contain not one, but several images (called layers) or some additional data. So that a graphic editor that reads this powerful format can figure out where what is in it, the image structure is described in the so-called image file directory (IFD) located in the header of the same file. Similar to the JPEG discussed earlier, the TIFF format allows us to record both color images with a color depth of up to 24 bits and monochrome images. Moreover, files of this format can store images in other color models, for example, in CMYK (used mainly for printing). I hope I didn't tire you too much with technical details, but let's get back to our rams, that is, to the needs of an amateur photographer. If your camera has JPEG and TIFF formats, then I recommend that you use only TIFF, only then you can be sure that you are using the capabilities of your camera's matrix and its lens to one hundred percent. The image from the matrix, processed by the camera's processor, is recorded on the card uncompressed, that is, completely and completely, and therefore does not lose its living properties. It is worth noting the disadvantages inherent in the TIFF format. Firstly, carrying a large amount of information, such files take up a lot of space on the memory card. As an example, I will say that in my camera on a 256 MB card there are 20 TIFF pictures or 128 pieces (that is, six times more) in JPEG format. Secondly, due to the large file size, they take longer to write to the memory card - the TIFF recording time can be several tens of seconds, while the JPEG recording usually takes about two or three seconds.

Dignity
The image from the matrix, processed by the camera's processor, is recorded on the card in uncompressed or almost uncompressed form, that is, almost completely, and therefore does not lose its living properties.

disadvantages
Takes up a lot of memory card space, long recording time.

For whom
For amateur photographers and professionals who want to print photos larger than 10x15 cm, do not spare space on the memory card for high-quality images, which can later be worked with in a graphics editor.

These illustrations show the advantage of the RAW format. The blue image was shot offhand, with the wrong white balance (incandescent). Such a picture, captured in JPEG or TIFF format, could only be thrown away or would have to be converted to grayscale. However, the RAW format got rid of the cyanosis and saved this photo by applying a different white balance (in this case, “sunny”).
But the most interesting opportunities for a photographer are provided by the RAW format (from the English "raw" - raw, unprocessed). Note that only expensive professional and semi-professional digital cameras support this format. Why is this format so remarkable?
As we already know, after the image is received from the matrix, it undergoes processing in the camera's processor, where the settings of the white balance, sharpness, contrast, color saturation and others selected by the photographer are "superimposed" on it. The result is written to the memory card. This is the case with the JPEG and TIFF formats. In the RAW format, the situation is different: the image itself, not yet processed, is written to the memory card separately, and all the settings selected by the photographer are saved in the file header separately in order to be applied later. Then, on a computer, these RAW files are processed in special programs called RAW converters, and the user can decide whether to apply the settings selected at the time of shooting to the image, or replace them with other, more suitable ones.
So, if, when shooting a mountain landscape, you were sure that the sunny white balance would be the best fit for this scene, and at home suddenly found that the picture has cold tones and is repulsive, then you can "cancel" the selected white balance by replacing it, to for example, on "cloudy". The same applies to all filters, such as black and white, sepia and solarization, color balance, digital sharpness and some other parameters. You can even apply the appropriate settings from other images to the picture, for example, having determined once and for all the exact white balance for one of the frames taken in the meadow, you can use it for all the other pictures in this photo shoot. After the harmony is finally achieved, we save the image on the computer in any format, but the original RAW file with the unprocessed image is not affected.
Believe it or not, using the RAW format allows even a little (up to / 3EV) correction for incorrect exposure! This became possible due to information redundancy provided by twelve (in some cases - sixteen) bit grid for each color channel in RAW format, versus eight-bit grid of JPEG and TIFF formats. Since the whole process of working with RAW is very similar to adjustments for optical printing from an overexposed or underexposed negative using tint superelevation, filters, and so on, the RAW format is often called a digital negative.
For the sake of fairness, I note that different manufacturers of photographic equipment interpret the concept of "raw information" in different ways. For example, some of them still apply noise reduction to the image before recording in RAW format, others - digital sharpness, still others - compression, and in older models you can even find white balance. In addition, all firms strive to bring something of their own into this format, and as a result, such formats as ORF (Olympus), NEF (Nikon), CRW (Canon) and others have appeared. These are all flavors of the RAW format, and each requires its own unique RAW converter. Note that Adobe has released a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS 8.0 that reads all RAW formats, which any photographer can download from the company's website for free.
It is noteworthy that a RAW file takes up significantly less memory space than a similar TIFF. This is explained by the fact that the RAW file does not store the entire image itself, but only that information that is received from the three sensors of the matrix, which are responsible for the red, green and blue channels, and interpolation with the construction of the final image is carried out only later, in a RAW converter on a computer. For the TIFF format, interpolation is performed immediately after shooting, in the camera itself, and its results are recorded on the memory card, taking up much more space. I also note that the interpolation process itself is very energy intensive, which affects the battery life.
For all the advantages of the RAW format, it also has minor drawbacks. The main one, in my opinion, is the need to process images on a computer before using them. Each picture must be processed individually, and not everyone is capable of such perseverance. The second drawback, but not so significant, which I have already mentioned, is the incompatibility of RAW formats from different manufacturers, which leads to the need to use proprietary RAW converters or plug-ins for graphic editors.

Dignity
Huge opportunities for "fine-tuning" photos.

disadvantages
Takes up less space on the memory card than TIFF, but more than JPEG, almost every manufacturer tries to have their own RAW "in stock", for which a separate plug-in is required.

For whom
For professionals and very (even too much!) Advanced amateur photographers.

Summary
So the question of which of the formats available in the camera to use is up to everyone. Someone who wants to take hundreds of brilliant pictures on one small memory card will be quite satisfied with the JPEG format available in any camera, someone will like the logical completeness of the TIFF format, and someone, on the contrary, who loves to change and alter everything until the very last moment, will prefer RAW. However, the choice between TIFF and RAW is not yet relevant for most users: today, rare cameras have both formats.

One of the main image formats used by photographers to store and process digital photo files is TIFF (Tagged Image File Format). These words can be translated into Russian as a file format of images with tags. It was developed in 1994 by Aldus Corporation and Microsoft.

TIFF tags for photo files or named labels, these are information blocks that store a description of the image - size, color model, color depth, etc., as well as information about how and when it was made. In total, several dozen tags of three different types are defined for the TIFF file format: required, extended and optional tags (Fig. 1).

Fig.1 Fragment of the table of required tags for a photo file in TIFF format (to see the table in full, click on the image).

Subsequently, the company, owner of the TIFF format specification, Aldus Corporation, merged with Adobe Systems, which is the developer of the famous Photoshop and Lightroom programs. Now all the rights to this format belong to this particular company, which means that its programs work without problems with TIFF photo files.

About the TIFF format for photographers

The TIFF file format is perhaps one of the first and most complex algorithms developed for storing graphical information. It is capable of storing high quality images, and therefore is widely used in printing, publishing and photography, which are closely related and are of interest to photographers.

If you use the TIFF format for other purposes, nothing terrible will happen to your photos. In it, the image quality is always preserved. But besides the quality, the photographer is also interested in the efficiency of working with photographs, and the resources necessary for this. But here there may be problems that you need to be aware of when choosing this format.

The ill-considered use of the TIFF format consumes the most valuable resource of any photographer, it is his time. In addition, it takes extra effort and expense to securely store huge volumes of TIFF digital photographs (Figure 2).

Fig.2 Among the files of one photo saved in different graphic formats, TIFF will always be at least a little, but the largest.

But besides the TIFF format, there are others in which you can also save high-quality photos. Which one is better? When can I choose the TIFF format, and when is it better not to? What happens to photos if you choose the wrong file format for them and what will be lost? How critical is this?

To answer these questions, you need to know the main features of the TIFF format. By comparing its advantages and disadvantages, it is very easy to determine the areas in which the TIFF format is better than others for solving a photographer's specific problems of using photo files.

Features of TIFF photos

TIFF photo files usually have a tiff or tif extension. It is supported on both the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh platforms. Many graphics programs for both Windows and Mac can work with TIFF files. This allows you to use it to transfer digital photos from one platform to another, but you only need to specify this in the file parameters when saving it (Fig. 3).

Fig.3 Parameters window for saving TIFF photo files in Adobe Photoshop.

An important property of TIFF files is the ability to store information in a compressed form, which can significantly reduce the size of a digital photograph. This format has different compression algorithms, both lossy, JPEG, and lossless. In most cases, a lossless compression algorithm is used - LZW.

Compression is optional for saving photo files in TIFF format and can be disabled. This can be done in any version of Photoshop. It should be remembered that many older programs do not read compressed TIFF files, and their modern counterparts do not have permission to use these compression algorithms. Most often, TIFF compression is not used.

When saving photo files in TIFF format, all color coding modes are supported - 8, 16, and 32 bits per channel, as well as basic color spaces - grayscale, indexed colors, Lab, RGB, CMYK. Also, this format allows you to save or not save the embedded ICC color profile (Fig. 4).

Fig.4 Fragment of the window for managing the color profile in a TIFF photo file from Adobe Photoshop.

A significant feature of TIFF files for photographs is that they can store several images at once, called layers, which can be both raster and vector. Therefore, this format cannot be attributed to any one strictly defined type, although it is considered raster. It was originally created to store any graphical information, but it also has its drawbacks.

Disadvantages of TIFF photos

The biggest disadvantage of TIFF photos is their large file size. For example, they can be 10 - 12 times larger than their analogs saved in the JPEG format, which, of course, imposes the following restrictions on them.

Storing TIFF photos requires additional hard disk space on your computer. When these files are burned onto CDs, the number of photos recorded on them will be very small. Or the space allotted in any free cloud Internet service such as, for example, will run out very quickly.

Fig. 5 In the free cloud Google Drive, you can place only about 800 TIFF photo files in A4 size, and about 300 on a DVD.

File size also affects the speed of viewing photos, especially on older, low-power computers. For this reason, it is very inconvenient to browse through photo archives and search for photographs in them, the files of which are stored in the TIFF format. Firstly, they open very slowly, and secondly, not every graphic can do this.

Another TIFF format imposes restrictions on posting photos on the Internet. Due to their large size, they will either open very slowly or will not open at all. This format is not supported by major Internet browsers, as well as photo sites and various services of the World Wide Web.

There is also a problem with e-mail in those cases when you need to send a letter with attached photo files saved in the TIFF format. The size of one such file in megabytes can be larger than the allowable size of the letter, and most likely it will not reach the addressee (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6 A fragment of the Yandex Disk service help section about files attached to letters excludes TIFF photos.

Another major disadvantage of the TIFF format, which is significant for digital photos, is that in some older programs they may not open. As already mentioned, not all of them understand compressed files of the TIFF format, as well as newer files of this format, or they do not have permission to use its specification.

This also applies to a variety of consumer digital photo viewing devices such as DVD players and cell phones. For this reason, TIFF photos can only be viewed on a computer. Of course, this is inconvenient, but it also has more suitable uses.

When you need TIFF photos

The TIFF format is a graphics format for professionals. It is used mainly in those areas of digital graphics where high quality color reproduction is required in photographs. It was especially widely used in printing, professional photo printing, as well as for scanning film photographic materials during their digitization.

The advantage of TIFF over JPEG is that it can store the color of photographs using more than 8 bits per channel. This allows you to digitize the entire dynamic range of color that photographic film is capable of transmitting. This is not important for photographic paper, since its color gamut is smaller and 8-bit JPEG is sufficient for it.

But before printing digital photographs, they are usually processed in graphics programs to eliminate some kind of defects or improve color. This may require saving them multiple times using layers. Of all the photos listed on the files, this can be done only in PSD and TIFF formats. But PSD is a Photoshop format, and you may not have it ...

Some professional digital cameras use the TIFF format to save files with the highest possible image quality while saving time that would have to be spent processing them in RAW format. This choice combines the main advantages of formats such as JPEG and RAW (Figure 7).

Fig. 7. With some digital cameras, you can select the TIFF format for saving photo files.

Another justifiable use of the TIFF format is to inkjet high quality photos on a home printer. This format has more options for working with color when printing than, for example, the JPEG format. Although this difference is not so noticeable, in some cases the color reproduction will be better in TIFF photographs.

Well, that is, perhaps, all that can be said about the TIFF format regarding its choice for storing and processing digital photographs. Like other graphic formats, it has both pros and cons. Which of them and what is better suited can be selected only by comparison.

Read about other file formats used for storing photos in the following articles.

Today we will try to answer the seemingly simple question - which format to choose for scanning: TIFF or JPEG? Many articles have been written on this topic, but even very experienced photographers do not immediately come to an optimal solution. What's the catch? Why is the obvious answer "of course, TIFF" actually not as straightforward as it seems at first glance? It's simple - any theoretical considerations need to be tested in practice. And this is what we will see if we do this.

For example, let's take a frame from a Hasselblad 503cw medium format camera, taken on Kodak Portra 400 film. Scan it on Nikon Coolscan 9000 with a maximum resolution of 4000 dpi (~ 8800 x 8800 px) and save it in two formats - TIFF and JPEG with 100% quality. First of all, let's compare the sizes of these files:

TIFF - 465 Mb
JPEG - 90 Mb

The difference, conciliator, is decent, 5 times. For one 12-frame film, the difference in disk space required will be [(12 x 0.465) \u003d 5.58 Gb] - [(12 x 0.09) \u003d 1.08 Gb] \u003d 4.5 Gb. That is, in one case, the scans of the film will occupy 5.58 Gb, and in the other 1.08 Gb. What do we get for this difference?

Before answering this question, let's pay attention to the fact that in addition to the large volume of files, the TIFF format takes much longer to rewrite over the local network and open in Photoshop. That is, if, for example, you store files in your home network storage (a very common scheme in our time), then you simply cannot access the archive on the fly - before you look at it, the files will need to be downloaded to your local computer. Let's see if we get something in return for this inconvenience.

So, in one corner of the ring TIFF weighing 465 Mb, in the other JPEG 90 Mb. Who will win? What gives us a 5x weight gain in terms of image quality? Let's conduct a visual experiment. Let's take the initially scanned TIFF, save its JPEG version with 100% quality (this is exactly what the software of all scanners does) and compare. Important - when comparing, all work is carried out in a 16-bit raster TIFF file, the screenshots below are taken accordingly. That is, the comparison is absolutely correct, since is in no way a comparison of two jpegs.

So take a look at the title picture in this article. TIFF on the left, JPEG on the right. Do you see the difference? It is unlikely, because both files, when published on the Internet, are already jeepgs, moreover, small in size. Therefore, now let's look at a greatly enlarged (up to 500%) fragment of the frame:

Can you see the difference now? It is very doubtful, although, of course, it is not excluded. And this is at a 500% increase! When no one ever, including yourself, will watch these files.

And yet - let's try to find the difference, even if you can't see it with your eyes. To do this, we will overlay JPEG on TIFF in Adobe Photoshop in two layers in Difference mode:

Where there is no difference, the color will be black. Where it is, something other than black.

From whatever angle you try to look at this "Malevich square", you are unlikely to see any other colors here except black. This means that even on a technical level, there is no observable difference between TIFF and JPEG.

But anyway. There must be at least some visual difference between TIFF and JPEG, you ask? Otherwise what's the point in the TIFF format? Yes, there really is a difference. But it is purely technical, so insignificant that in real conditions you will never encounter it. To see it, we need to greatly increase the contrast of our Difference. Very strong - it means as much as in real practice we will never bully. But even with this incredibly powerful contrast, the color of the difference will remain black. That is, the difference is again not observed:

And only if you raise the contrast to such a limit, when the white and black points on the Levels tool collapse into one (which is absolutely impossible in real photo processing), only then you can see some insignificant difference that appears at the level of natural noise of the digital format itself and the scanner matrix ...

The key argument of the adherents of the TIFF format is the mythical posterization (the effect of "stepping stones"), which supposedly can come out when processing an 8-bit JPEG file. In theory, this is true. But in real practice, with proper scanning and saving of files, this is not confirmed.

Let's demonstrate a grotesque (that is, deliberately enhanced) example - take two of our files and apply a very strong contrast curve to them. So strong that we are unlikely to use in real life.

It is after a significant increase in contrast on smooth gradients (usually in the sky) that posterization most often appears, but in our case this did not happen. To be sure, let's save the comparison result as a PNG file to exclude JPEG interference when viewing.

Just in case, let's look at a fragment of the scan at 100% magnification, and again no posterization.

When working with digital files, posterization is more likely, however, in the case of film, 8-bit scans (namely scans) are not a problem, in particular, because film grain works as natural dithering, i.e. smoothes gradations and prevents posterization from appearing. For digital files, the difference between 8 and 16 bits is more significant.

It turns out that the TIFF format is rather meaningless for scanning and storing scans. It is much more reasonable to do it in JPEG - working with such files is much faster, they take up an order of magnitude less space, and the visual quality of the picture in them does not differ. However, there are several important nuances here:

1) The quality of saving such a JPEG file must be 100%. If, for example, you save a JPEG with a quality of even 95%, then the observed difference in the given example will begin to be observed much faster, and such a file will actually play in the TIFF format. Therefore, be sure to check the quality of the JPEG file in the settings of your scanning program. If you're scanning in a darkroom, find out what JPEG quality they are using. For example, in the SREDA Film Lab, only 100% quality JPEG files are always used, on all scanners.

2) The JPEG file is only suitable for storing the original information, the so-called "raw scan". If you plan to process the image in the future, it is recommended to convert the file to TIFF (or PSD) 16 bit format and then work with it. Each repeated saving of a JPEG file inevitably leads to its degradation and sooner or later the difference becomes visually noticeable. Therefore, any re-saving is better done already in TIFF format, but the finished result can be saved again in JPEG (and sent to print or published on the Internet) - this will be the first re-saving of JPEG, the degradation of which is almost impossible to see with the eye. In principle, you will hardly see the difference even with 5-7 times oversaving of JPEG, but of course it is better not to do this.

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The TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) format is a format that contains raster graphic images. This file format is used during scanning, as well as text recognition. Often, these format files are used for fax transmission. The TIFF file is supported by a variety of graphics applications.

Developers from Aldus Corporation, together with manufacturers from Microsoft, founded this storage format for use in PostScript. At the moment, Tagged Image is officially owned by Adobe Systems Corporation. It should be noted that TIFF files are used for storing graphic image formats with large color depth indicators.

The TIFF file is the main format of the operating system called NeXTSTEP, from which bitmap images with the TIFF file extension were transferred to Mac OS. When creating TIFF, one of the clear advantages was its lossless compression, however, in modern times, the .tiff extension has been supplemented with lossy compression capabilities in the JPEG format. TIFF Tagged Image File Format assumes the use of fairly common compression algorithms such as JPEG, ZIP, JBIG, LZ77, PackBits, and so on. Typically, TIFF files have the .tiff (.tif) extension.

The .tiff file is designed to store images with high quality graphics, which is its clear advantage. You don't need specialized software to open a TIFF file, just use a variety of graphics applications such as Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Windows Photos, as well as CorelDRAW Graphics.

Understanding which image format to use will enable you to get the most out of your digital photos. Some formats are best suited for obtaining the optimal balance of quality and file size when storing your photos, while others will make it easier for you to recover from a damaged image. There are countless image formats, and new ones appear from time to time; in this chapter, we will focus on the capabilities of two of the three most suitable formats for digital photography: JPEG and TIFF. The RAW format is discussed in a separate chapter.

Introduction: image compression

An important concept that distinguishes many image formats is the presence or absence of compression. Compressed files are significantly smaller than their uncompressed counterparts and fall into two main categories: lossy and lossless. Lossless compression ensures that all image information is retained, even if the resulting image size is slightly larger. Lossy compression, in contrast, can create significantly smaller files, but achieves this by selectively discarding image information. The resulting compressed file is no longer identical to the original as a result. The apparent differences between compressed files and their sources are called "compression defects".

JPEG format

Jpeg stands for Joint Photographic Expert Group and, as the name suggests, was specifically designed to store photographic images. It has also become the standard format for storing images in digital cameras and displaying photographs on Internet sites. JPEG files are significantly smaller than those saved in TIFF, but the cost savings come at the cost of using lossy compression. The great strength of JPEG files lies in their flexibility. The JPEG format is essentially a set of parameters that can be adjusted to the needs of a single image.

The JPEG format achieves a small file size by compressing the image in a method that retains the most significant detail and loses details judged to be less visually impacting. JPEG does this by taking advantage of the fact that the human eye sees variations in brightness more than variations in color. The amount of compression achieved is thus highly dependent on the content of the image; high-noise or fine-grained images are not easy to compress, while images with soft skies and little texture will be compressed very well.

It is also helpful to get a visual idea of \u200b\u200bhow different compression rates affect the quality of your image. You are 100% unlikely to notice any difference, if any, between the compressed and uncompressed image below. Notice how the JPEG algorithm prioritizes bright, high-contrast edges at the expense of finer textures. As the quality decreases, the JPEG algorithm is forced to sacrifice more and more visible textures in order to continue to reduce the file size.

Select the compression quality: 100% 80% 60% 30% 10%
Original Compression

TIFF format

Tiff stands for Tagged Image File Format and is a standard for the printing and printing industries. TIFF files are significantly larger than their JPEG counterparts and can be recorded either uncompressed or losslessly compressed. Unlike JPEG, TIFF files can be either 16 or 8 bits per channel. In addition, several layers (pages) of an image can be stored in one TIFF file.

TIFF files are an excellent choice for storing intermediate files that you may need to edit later, as they do not introduce compression defects. Many cameras can record images directly to TIFF, but they can take up significantly more space than comparable JPEGs. If your camera supports RAW format, this is an excellent alternative as it is substantially smaller and can still retain even more information about the original image.

  • Record the image using lossy compression only after you finish editing, as many image manipulations can multiply compression artifacts.
  • Avoid compressing the file multiple times, as compression defects can accumulate and lead to progressively degrading image quality. In such cases, the JPEG algorithm can result in larger and larger files at the same compression ratio.
  • Make sure that there is minimal noise in the image, as this will significantly reduce the size of the JPEG files.