Is there a preference in saving the file in TIFF vs. PSD

Digital Darkroom Questions (DDQ) October 9, 2008

by Tim Grey http://www.timgrey.com/ Books: www.timgrey.com/books/index.htm Blog: www.timgrey.com/blog

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After editing a file in Photoshop CS3, is there a preference in saving the file in TIFF vs. PSD?

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Not really. You can actually use either format interchangeably in terms of the features supported for your images. That includes multiple layers, alpha channels, layer masks, smart objects, and more. You won't lose anything in your images by choosing one format over the other.

Because of the compression options available in the TIFF file format you can achieve smaller file sizes (I recommend using the LZW compression option in the TIFF Options dialog box that is displayed when you save a file as a TIFF). That's really about the only difference from a practical perspective.

Having said that, I still use the Photoshop PSD file format for saving all of my master image files. The reason is mostly historical, but it still provides a benefit to me in terms of basic file organization. Because Photoshop didn't used to allow you to save layered TIFF files, if you worked with layers (which I've always strongly recommended) you needed to save the resulting image file as a PSD. As a result, when you looked at a list of files on your hard drive, you would know the PSD file was the layered "master" file, and any TIFF images were derivative files created for specific output.

Based on that history, I use PSD for the master image file with all layers intact, and TIFF for the flattened version of the image I'll produce when including images in my books, newsletter, magazines, or other output.

That's my reasoning, but it is admittedly only a minor advantage. If reducing file sizes is more important to you I'd suggest using the TIFF file format with LZW compression applied.

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