Teach Yourself Photoshop 4 in 14 Days -- Appendix C -- File Formats Teach Yourself Photoshop 4 in 14 Days - C - File Formats File formats refer to the different formats in which image files can be saved. How you intend to use a format will determine the format you should use. To save a file choose File+Save, File+Save As, or File+Save a Copy As. In the dialog box, you will see a drop-down menu that offers you these options. Photoshop (.psd): This is, of course, the native Photoshop format. This is the optimum file to use while you are still working in Photoshop. It enables layers (for more information, see Day 8, "Layers"). Bitmap (.bmp): This is a Windows compatible file format. It is lossless, meaning that no file information is discarded whatsoever when you save. EPS (.eps): This is an Encapsulated Postscript file, a great option for line art and for when you want to import line art into page layout programs. GIF (.gif): The Graphics Interchange Format is an excellent choice for the web. Use the File+Export Gif89a to create transparent GIFs. See Day 14, "Photoshop for the Web," for more information on this format. JPG (.jpg): This the Joint Photographic Group Experts file format. This is a lossy format. Depending on how you save the file, image information, for the sake of conserving file size, is discarded. You can adjust these settings as you save. This is a great option for the World Wide Web (see Day 14 for more information). PCX (.pcx): This is a format used with Windows machines. In fact, over half of the images in this book were created in this format. PDF (.pdf): This stands for Portable Document Format. It works in conjunction with Adobe's Acrobat product, which is another option for web publishing. PICT (.pct): This is a Macintosh only file. It contains a Macintosh resource fork. About half of the images created for this publication were PICT files. Pixar (.pxr): This is for use with high-end graphics machines and 3-D imaging programs. PNG (.png): This format is an alternative to the GIF file format. It is great for web publishing and is growing in popularity. It enables you to save your files such that they download progressively over the World Wide Web. Raw (.raw): This format saves files as a stream of bytes. This is good for moving between applications and computer platforms, but it is better if you can decide on an actual format that will serve all of your cross-platform needs, such as JPEG or TIFF. But if you aren't sure, this is the way to go. Scitex (.sci): This is for high-end systems (Scitex systems). If you need extremely precise graphics for publication, contact Scitex for more information. Targa (.tga): This format is for systems using the Truevision® video board. TIFF (.tif): A very common format, the Tagged-Image File Format works cross-platform and uses lossless LZW compression (meaning that no image data is discarded from an image as it is compressed). © Copyright, Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.