Best file format?

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JayADee

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#148935 6-Jul-2014 05:18

I'm just finishing a book layout for a guy that involves a lot of scanned photos and some photo restoration. I'm going to put the photos and a PDF onto a dvd for him. What's the best/most flexible file format for the photos given he's not technical at all but he does have a recently purchased laptop? I don't think it likely he'll want to print them out. They are psd files. TIFF maybe? JPEG?

Thanks for any advice.

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#1081706 6-Jul-2014 06:44

Most home written DVDs deteriorate and can be unreadable in as little as a couple of years.

Could you use compressed PNG images? They're a standard format and aren't lossy.

timmmay

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#1081714 6-Jul-2014 08:23

PNG aren't appropriate for images, generally.

DVDs are big. Give him PSD, TIFF, and Q10-Q12 jpegs (80 - 100% in LR). Make sure they're all in the sRgb color space otherwise he'll likely stuff up the color.

surfisup1000

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#1081739 6-Jul-2014 09:30

JayADee: I'm just finishing a book layout for a guy that involves a lot of scanned photos and some photo restoration. I'm going to put the photos and a PDF onto a dvd for him. What's the best/most flexible file format for the photos given he's not technical at all but he does have a recently purchased laptop? I don't think it likely he'll want to print them out. They are psd files. TIFF maybe? JPEG?

Thanks for any advice.

JPEG , GIF, and TIFF in descending order of popularity/support. Tiff is best quality though, but, if you're going for dvd resolution then it doesn't matter.

Also, dump everything onto a flash drive, they're very cheap these days and should last much longer than a dvd.

timmmay

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#1081764 6-Jul-2014 11:02

Neither GIF or PNG are appropriate for images. GIF is a super old format more for drawings, PNG replaces it and adds a few more features, but still, it's not good for images. Read my post above, I know what I'm talking about, I'm an engineer and professional photographer.

gzt

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#1081823 6-Jul-2014 13:33

My 2c fwiw. Provide all of:

(a) originals
(b) a lossless non-proprietary format (TIFF most likely)
(c) something the customer can view on any machine (JPEG 100%)

In other words just here to agree with Timmmay ; )

I have some huge size scans of old photos. So I can understand that storage might be a problem if there are more than a few.

One option is suggesting a google storage account. Cheap as. If the guy uses gmail he might have enough free storage for the job already. Viewing online is easy. Actually now there is a thing called google photo as well. (not picasa).

Edit: might be worth trying psb on g.drive if they are smallish. See if the viewer just happens to work with them, you might need nothing else.

JayADee

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#1082019 6-Jul-2014 19:22

timmmay: Give him PSD, TIFF, and Q10-Q12 jpegs (80 - 100% in LR). Make sure they're all in the sRgb color space otherwise he'll likely stuff up the color.

Ok thanks everybody, I'll go with this. As for storage media, I'll see what the final file size ends up as.

Knew I could count on Geekzone. :)

RileyB

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#1082466 7-Jul-2014 14:36

What's the end result the photos will be used for? Also JPEG is better then PNG for most photos, PNG is good for text or anything with a lot of hard edges (png is lossless)

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JayADee

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#1085786 9-Jul-2014 15:14

Most likely just to look at on his PC. I gave him the DVDs yesterday and he said he was unlikely to print them out (the book has them all in). Next time I'm going to just request the client supplies USB sticks and tell them the size required. Burning discs is a pain. I did caution him about the lack of longevity.

RileyB

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#1085794 9-Jul-2014 15:18

jpeg should be fine, tiff Raw etc are only really useful if you need to edit.

timmmay

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#1085800 9-Jul-2014 15:37

JayADee: Most likely just to look at on his PC. I gave him the DVDs yesterday and he said he was unlikely to print them out (the book has them all in). Next time I'm going to just request the client supplies USB sticks and tell them the size required. Burning discs is a pain. I did caution him about the lack of longevity.

They're so cheap, just add $10 to your quote and give them it.

RileyB

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#1086733 10-Jul-2014 21:08

I always grab one of the 3x8GB packs for around $18 everytime I'm in dicksmith/JB HiFi etc, they just seem to disappear. You can also get them cheap of one day sales sites.

JayADee

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#1086870 11-Jul-2014 06:48

Good plan. I didn't realise they were so cheap!
Edit: I've got a gift card to paper plus, sounds like a good use for it.

gzt

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#1086998 11-Jul-2014 11:14

Similar at Warehouse/Warehouse Stationary. Same at PBTech offer free shipping.

Jaxson

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#1094558 23-Jul-2014 22:20

As a side note I'd suggest making the JPEG versions 'full HD' at 1920 x 1080, or perhaps 4K even nowadays. Tell them not to print from this, but to use the TIFF files for printing. Maybe even put the TIFF versions in a folder called printing and the JPEG's in a folder called viewing.

Reason I say this is just lately I've had a couple of enquiries to adjust photos from professional wedding photographers so they display on a TV etc easily.
The photographers have given the best quality files to the customer (well JPEG's at least) at full res and a lot of display devices (TV's with USB port, older DVD players etc) can take an age to load each photo at such high resolution. Resizing all to 1080 has meant the files loaded quickly and everyone was happy again.

Understanding what the intended use for the file type is can be quite important.

freitasm

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#1094566 23-Jul-2014 22:32

Whatever you, keep copies. Your friend will contact you in three years asking if you have them because he will lose the USB key.

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