Now Here's a rookie question!

cdonovan · September 26, 2006

How the heck in my Printshoppro10 do I save my pictures without losing quality or having to compress the files??? I have tried everything that I can think of, and can't seem to find a topic here about it :confused

thanks in advance!

edgework · September 26, 2006

cdonovan wrote:

How the heck in my Printshoppro10 do I save my pictures without losing quality or having to compress the files??? I have tried everything that I can think of, and can't seem to find a topic here about it :confused

thanks in advance!

What file format options do you have? JPEG uses a compession algorithm that will degrade quality, although with a hi-res image, saving at highest quality will not be noticable. Tiff and EPS formats do not compress or lose information.

Scott_Quier · September 27, 2006

edgework wrote:

What file format options do you have? JPEG uses a compession algorithm that will degrade quality, although with a hi-res image, saving at highest quality will not be noticable. Tiff and EPS formats do not compress or lose information.

In addition to this, if you are working in JPG, each time you go through the open/save cycle, you end up compressing an already compressed file. The effects are not only cumulative, but exponential with each save. So, the first save might not display any real problems, but the next one will, and the one after that even more, and so on....

cdonovan · September 28, 2006

I am working in jpg just because i really am not knowledgable in the differences of the others, and I have noticed that each time I have saved, it gets smaller...so would you recommend that I work with a different format? I am not sure what to do!!!
Like i said, rookie question!!!

Art Scott · September 28, 2006

Yes...if your camera will shoot in RAW ( Raw is the digital equivalent to a film negative or transparency and allows for the greatest manipulation) then do so and save your final product in the highest jpg possible....I am not familiar with Print shop PRo...but with PhotoShop when saving a dialogue box opens and you can select a desired amount of compression....personally...I always save at the highest (12) and never touch that jpg file again....if I need to do additional work I will re-open the Raw file and tweek it.....if it a phot that I think has illustrative value (being used as a poster with printing on it or the cover of a book) then I will save a copy as a tiff....BUT ALWAYS KEEP THE RAW FILE.

Yes Raw does use up much more of your memory card (well also more Hard disk space too) but memory is getting to be real cheap...I just paid $154 for an 8gb 120X TRandscend CF card.....so it is getting real inexpensive and so are hard drives.

Hope this helps.

Scott_Quier · September 29, 2006

If your camera can write to RAW format, use that. You should then consider this to be your negative, a negative that you can re-process as many different ways as you would like.

Photoshop (yeah, I know you said PrintShop Pro ... but I can only talk about what I know) as the ability to write output to a number of different formats. When I process a photo, I usually will save to PSD. This allows me to save all my edits in a format that I can then go back and tweak one of the edits (curves, levels, saturation, clones, healing brush, etc) without having to go all the way back to the RAW file.

Then, for production, I will flatten the file, sharpen it as appropriate for the output medium and then produce the final product file, be that JPG (different sizes for different targets), TIFF, etc.

If you do a search of DGrin, looking for RAW, you will find there have been a number of Pros/Cons discussions. One of the best is in the Hall of Wisdom.

Hope this helps a bit rather than further muddy the waters for you.

Malte · September 29, 2006

If your camera doesn't support raw, check if your app has its own file format, like Photoshop has .psd. Open the .jpg and immediatly save as this format. Do all editing in this format and when you're all done, save to .jpg.

Malte

cdonovan · September 29, 2006

My Camera does shoot in Raw, but I would prefer to shoot a smaller file, well just for cost right now, it's not unlike me to go and shoot 300 pictures in an hour at a horse show, so just from a start up business cost I need to be careful with my file size right now. I certainly see the avantage of shooting in raw, and will next season (our horse show season is over now, so I have all winter to build up my portable storage space!) I have one more show that i have to go through and get the images on my site, and thought I would ask, they are all backed up on disk in their original state.

the app can save in GIF PNG and JPEG.

and I assume that JPEG and JPG are different right...??

:twitch the more i look the more confused i get

Malte · September 29, 2006

JPEG is the same as JPG. GIF's no good because it supports a small number of colors (256?), suitable for logos and such. Don't know about PNG but it was introduced as an open alternative to GIF, so maybe that's the same. JPEG is the best option for photos, it's just a matter of if you also want to save the raw image file. Raw is not a file format like .jpg, it's a group term for all the camera manufacturers fileformats for handling raw image data, such as .crw and .nef.

Sounds like you need new software most of all. I'm stunned that an image editing software with "Pro" in the name doesn't have a non-destructive way of saving images. Maybe there's an option like "Save project as..." or something like that.

Malte

cdonovan · September 29, 2006

I definitly need the photoshop...but my budget just can't afford it right now....I have been told by many that PSP is just as good, perhaps a little more complicated to use, but has some great application similar to photoshop.

anyway, this is the information that I have on the PNG Files

Working with PNG files

Corel Paint Shop Pro lets you optimize PNG files to maximize quality and minimize file size.
The PNG Optimizer dialog box contains three tabs where you configure the color, transparency, and format options of the file. The fourth page displays estimated download times of the image at various modem speeds.
PNG Optimizer Colors tab

You can choose the color depth for the PNG file — the greater the color depth, the longer it takes to download the image. Use this tab to select a color depth for your PNG image and, for paletted images, the method of color reduction, number of colors, and amount of dithering.
PNG Optimizer Gamma tab

PNG images contain a gAMA chunk, which controls gamma levels of an image. The gamma setting helps the image appear consistent across multiple display devices. If in doubt, you should use the default PC value.
PNG Optimizer Transparency tab

You can choose to base transparency on existing image or layer transparency, or you can sample the color in the image that you want to make transparent. If you have a selection in your image, you can base the transparency on the selection. You can also base transparency on the Alpha channel.
PNG Optimizer Format tab

PNG images can be interlaced or non-interlaced, which affects how the image is displayed on a computer with a slow Internet connection.
PNG Optimizer Download Times tab

This tab displays the size of the compressed file and an estimate of the download time at four modem speeds.
Using the PNG Wizard

You can open the PNG Wizard from the PNG Optimizer dialog box. The wizard guides you through the steps of optimizing a PNG file.

BillyVerden · September 29, 2006

Actually if i remember right. PrintShopPro has its own file format as well. Like .psd in PhotoShop. Its so you can save work in progress without cmpressing it. I forget the extension but it works just like .psd where it saves work in progress and yet doesn't compress it. So import the pic(jpeg) and save the file your working on with the pic(jpeg) in it and it should be ok. It won't be recompressed after that.

cdonovan · September 29, 2006

Actually if i remember right. PrintShopPro has its own file format as well. Like .psd in PhotoShop. Its so you can save work in progress without cmpressing it. I forget the extension but it works just like .psd where it saves work in progress and yet doesn't compress it. So import the pic(jpeg) and save the file your working on with the pic(jpeg) in it and it should be ok. It won't be recompressed after that

You are absolutly right so using that won't compress...

I had no idea!!! Thanks so much for your help..I'll see how I make out with it!!!:ivar

Art Scott · September 29, 2006

Never use GIG or PNG as a format for saving pics...both are for web graphics....always use tiff(tif), jpg (jpeg), or what ever your software has to offer....using PSP if you can save your file as a tiff so that when you reopen it it does not degrade ...then that would be my choice...even tho it eats up disk space quickly....

As for shooting raw and it eating up space...yes it does....How ever you can find extremely reliable cf cards in the 2gb size for around $40 or an 8gb transcend 130X card for approx $150.....the 8gb gives me 880 raw files...my 2- 2gb give me 167 each card.....so 2 - 2gb cards wold give you that 300 shot capacity you need...plus what ever you can get from your current card.

here is a short expanation on PNG format:

So what is PNG, and why is it worthy of its own home site? PNG (pronounced "ping") is the Portable Network Graphics format, a format for storing bitmapped (raster) images on computers. Unofficially its acronym stands for "PNG's Not GIF." PNG was designed to be the successor to the once-popular GIF format, which became decidedly less popular right around New Year's Day 1995 when Unisys and CompuServe suddenly announced that programs implementing GIF would require royalties, because of Unisys' patent on the LZW compression method used in GIF. Since GIF had been showing its age in a number of ways even prior to that, the announcement only catalyzed the development of a new and much-improved replacement format. PNG is the result.

Here is the LINK

where I copied the info...makes a good read

Now Here's a rookie question!

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