advice on storing photos

ih8stress

I have alot of old photos that I intend to scan and archive and have the following queries:

When scanning them to my computer which is the best format to use (eg. Tiff, Gif, Bmap)?

After using Paint Shop Pro to edit the photos am I best saving them as Tiff or JPeg etc?

What medium is it then best to save these photos in (eg. CD, DVD, flash stick etc.).

My intention is to have something to store/save these photos in with the option of printing/copying etc. at a later date.

I may want to enlarge a small quantity of them at a later date (canvas, posters etc.) and guess these will need doing at a different format etc. than the others which will be just for storing and reprinting as required in the normal size.

All advice appreciated, thanks.

isofa

TIFF to retain high quality - all professionals keep images in TIFF format. If you are short on space, top quality setting JPEG instead. Also you could archive full resolution TIFFs and create a lower res JPEG as previews to keep locally on a computer too.

Ideally always work in the loss-less format (TIFF or similar) right until the last moment before you convert to the lossy format of JPEG. If you save as a JPEG, open and edit and resave several times, the image will constantly degrade, with TIFFs or other loss-less formats, they won't. If you have space, always keep the original TIFF file, it retains every pixel of data.

No storage method will last for generations, if you archive to CDs, you need to check every few years they are ok, and re create new discs (CD-Rs/RWs degrade with time).

[Deleted User]

isofa wrote: »

TIFF to retain high quality - all professionals keep images in TIFF format. If you are short on space, top quality setting JPEG instead. Also you could archive full resolution TIFFs and create a lower res JPEG as previews to keep locally on a computer too.

Ideally always work in the loss-less format (TIFF or similar) right until the last moment before you convert to the lossy format of JPEG. If you save as a JPEG, open and edit and resave several times, the image will constantly degrade, with TIFFs or other loss-less formats, they won't. If you have space, always keep the original TIFF file, it retains every pixel of data.

No storage method will last for generations, if you archive to CDs, you need to check every few years they are ok, and re create new discs (CD-Rs/RWs degrade with time).

100% agree

ih8stress

Thank you for your prompt advice.

Just to make sure I've got it right, I should use TIFF to scan, edit them in PSPro as necessary, then save as TIFF format.

I do not have alot of storage space which is why I was thinking of then putting them on CD etc.

If I do this, what sort of file size should I be looking to save each photo as (eg. MB, KB)? And does this depend on what I want to do with them in the future?

isofa

Yes, generally - stick with TIFF if you want the best quality.

At 300dpi a 6"x4" photo in colour saved as a uncompressed TIFF file will be around 6Mb, a 7x5" will be around 9Mb.

At 600dpi, average of 25Mb and 36Mb respectively.

As JPEG files these would be much, much smaller, but you'll be losing image data.

If you only want to print them same size, or maybe up to 1.25 times, 300dpi will be fine. There is a similar thread here.

ih8stress

isofa wrote: »

Yes, generally - stick with TIFF if you want the best quality.

At 300dpi a 6"x4" photo in colour saved as a uncompressed TIFF file will be around 6Mb, a 7x5" will be around 9Mb.

At 600dpi, average of 25Mb and 36Mb respectively.

If you only want to print them same size, or maybe up to 1.25 times, 300dpi will be fine. There is a similar thread
here.
"Great, will read through this properly when I have more time"

Thank you for your help (Tried to add icon but for some reason I couldn't - the clapping one!)

isofa

No problem