Can anyone tell me the advantages or disadvantages of saving files to PSD over TIFF? I know that TIFF files are smaller than PSD, but wonder which is best to use.
Well PSD is limited to around 2gb in size so if you have a file which is going to run you more than that then you can save as TIFF which can handle larger file sizes.
Personally I save all my layered files as Tiff but my reason is so I can see a thumbnail in windows explorer since I cannot get PSD files to show a thumbnail. For a brief moment in Photoshop history they did - and that was ncie! - but then they didn't. I've had thumbnail issues for years and HATE digging thru all my PSD files having to open every single one to find what I'm looking for. I was getting desperate thinking it was a Windows problem only to find out that Photoshop caused it not Windows. Since I really dislike having to use an additional software/program to fix that issue I was pretty much stuck until I read that TIFF saves the thumbnail and when I tried it the angels were singing!
And just as fyi in the years that I have been saving as TIFF I have never had any issues with that format & Photoshop. So to answer your question I think its mostly personal preference and depends on the type of project you are working on. Tho I suppose technically it usually is better to use the native file format.
I resave ALL my PSD files as TIFF. The majority of the metadata is still there, but since TIFF can compress each layer with a ZIP algorithm and then compress the stack as well, the TIFF ends up being half the size or less of the PSD, which is great for not needing to buy new hard drives as often!
I've had no issues with using the TIFFs to make elements or papers, or using TIFF layout templates to create pages. It's a bummer there isn't such an option with Illustrator files.
Thank you so much for the info. I also like to see the file preview which isn't possible with a saved PSD file. This may sound silly, but I was saving a jpeg along with the PSD file for just that reason. Like mentioned above, this is taking up a lot of hard drive space. It may take me forever to convert them all to TIFF files, but I am going to start doing that!
I created an action to save mine as TIFF; it made processing through an entire folder of templates SO much faster! I think mine requires you to be sure to set the folder so you're saving to the one you're in, but as long as you've done that, you can just open up a bunch of PSD templates and then run the action once on each of them. I've got it set up to auto-close the one it just saved, so processing 30 of them is as simple as opening all 30, checking the save directory on the one, then clicking the play button on that action 30 times. It took me a couple of evenings to save every layout template I'd downloaded over a few years as a TIFF using that--definitely a huge time saver!
That sounds like an amazing action, but I'm not smart enough to know how to do that! I have only been doing digital scrapbooking for about
1 1/2 years, so I'm sure I don't have nearly the amount of PSD's to convert as you would have. Since we had a rainy day yesterday, I managed to get a huge amount of mine done. And from now on, I will just save them as TIFF files!
You're plenty smart enough, Kerry. You've shown you can figure out how to navigate a website; getting a pre-written action set up is pretty easy, too.
1. Download the action I linked, unzip it into a folder that you're not going to delete (mine's called Photoshop Actions), and then follow the directions HERE under "The Best Method (to get your actions to stick)" to load it into your actions palette. (It's got some pictures and stuff to make it even easier to understand.) Doing it this way means the action will always load with Photoshop and you won't have to try to find it again.
2. First-time setup for your file system, since you probably don't use the same folder I do to save your layouts: Once you've got the action loaded and a PSD template open, click the arrow to the left of SaveTempAsTIFF, and double-click the line that says "In: <folder>" so you can navigate to the folder you want to save in, then hit Save, and hit OK on the next screen. If you never save templates to any other folder, you'll never have to do that step again. Close that file; it's done.
3. After that, all you have to do is open one or more PSD templates, open the Actions palette, highlight the SaveTempAsTIFF action and click the Play button at the bottom of the Actions palette for each template you want to convert to TIFF. It'll save them as TIFF in the folder you chose and close the PSD, leaving you ready to play the action on the next one.
Thank you all for the info. I truly appreciate it. I will try to install and use your action, Holly. Thank you so much for including it in your response. I have been babysitting my 18 month old granddaughter, and 4 year old grandson for the last couple days, so I definitely have not had time to accomplish any scrapbooking!
No worries on that, Kerry. I've been getting too little scrapbooking done myself, between a lupus flareup and mom finding out on the 3rd that she has cancer. I'd totally take babysitting (and being well enough to do it) as a better reason to not be scrapping if I had the option!
I'd love to know too!
Well PSD is limited to around 2gb in size so if you have a file which is going to run you more than that then you can save as TIFF which can handle larger file sizes.
Personally I save all my layered files as Tiff but my reason is so I can see a thumbnail in windows explorer since I cannot get PSD files to show a thumbnail. For a brief moment in Photoshop history they did - and that was ncie! - but then they didn't. I've had thumbnail issues for years and HATE digging thru all my PSD files having to open every single one to find what I'm looking for. I was getting desperate thinking it was a Windows problem only to find out that Photoshop caused it not Windows. Since I really dislike having to use an additional software/program to fix that issue I was pretty much stuck until I read that TIFF saves the thumbnail and when I tried it the angels were singing!
And just as fyi in the years that I have been saving as TIFF I have never had any issues with that format & Photoshop. So to answer your question I think its mostly personal preference and depends on the type of project you are working on.
Tho I suppose technically it usually is better to use the native file format.
I resave ALL my PSD files as TIFF. The majority of the metadata is still there, but since TIFF can compress each layer with a ZIP algorithm and then compress the stack as well, the TIFF ends up being half the size or less of the PSD, which is great for not needing to buy new hard drives as often!
I've had no issues with using the TIFFs to make elements or papers, or using TIFF layout templates to create pages. It's a bummer there isn't such an option with Illustrator files.
Thank you so much for the info. I also like to see the file preview which isn't possible with a saved PSD file. This may sound silly, but I was saving a jpeg along with the PSD file for just that reason. Like mentioned above, this is taking up a lot of hard drive space. It may take me forever to convert them all to TIFF files, but I am going to start doing that!
I created an action to save mine as TIFF; it made processing through an entire folder of templates SO much faster! I think mine requires you to be sure to set the folder so you're saving to the one you're in, but as long as you've done that, you can just open up a bunch of PSD templates and then run the action once on each of them. I've got it set up to auto-close the one it just saved, so processing 30 of them is as simple as opening all 30, checking the save directory on the one, then clicking the play button on that action 30 times. It took me a couple of evenings to save every layout template I'd downloaded over a few years as a TIFF using that--definitely a huge time saver!
That sounds like an amazing action, but I'm not smart enough to know how to do that! I have only been doing digital scrapbooking for about
1 1/2 years, so I'm sure I don't have nearly the amount of PSD's to convert as you would have. Since we had a rainy day yesterday, I managed to get a huge amount of mine done. And from now on, I will just save them as TIFF files!
You're plenty smart enough, Kerry. You've shown you can figure out how to navigate a website; getting a pre-written action set up is pretty easy, too.
1. Download the action I linked, unzip it into a folder that you're not going to delete (mine's called Photoshop Actions), and then follow the directions HERE under "The Best Method (to get your actions to stick)" to load it into your actions palette. (It's got some pictures and stuff to make it even easier to understand.) Doing it this way means the action will always load with Photoshop and you won't have to try to find it again.
2. First-time setup for your file system, since you probably don't use the same folder I do to save your layouts: Once you've got the action loaded and a PSD template open, click the arrow to the left of SaveTempAsTIFF, and double-click the line that says "In: <folder>" so you can navigate to the folder you want to save in, then hit Save, and hit OK on the next screen. If you never save templates to any other folder, you'll never have to do that step again. Close that file; it's done.
3. After that, all you have to do is open one or more PSD templates, open the Actions palette, highlight the SaveTempAsTIFF action and click the Play button at the bottom of the Actions palette for each template you want to convert to TIFF. It'll save them as TIFF in the folder you chose and close the PSD, leaving you ready to play the action on the next one.
@Jessica: Windows not supporting PSD thumbnails is a real pain. I bought this codec which will give you PSD thumbnails. Worth the price in my opinion.
Thank you all for the info. I truly appreciate it. I will try to install and use your action, Holly. Thank you so much for including it in your response. I have been babysitting my 18 month old granddaughter, and 4 year old grandson for the last couple days, so I definitely have not had time to accomplish any scrapbooking!
with the free xnview you can see multiple etensions, once you opened xnview you can drag the psd into your ps/psp
No worries on that, Kerry. I've been getting too little scrapbooking done myself, between a lupus flareup and mom finding out on the 3rd that she has cancer. I'd totally take babysitting (and being well enough to do it) as a better reason to not be scrapping if I had the option!
Oh my Holly. I am so sorry to hear about your health issues and your mom's cancer. Prayers for you and your family......