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What's the best "master file" graphics format? E.g., PNG vs. TIF

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DonBlack

Senior member
I'm starting to archive all of my photos for use in the future on the web, digital frames, PDAs, etc. and am puzzled by which format I should use for my "master files." TIF is the obvious choice....but large of course. So, I'm looking at PNG which is also lossless and offers better compression. All of the latest software releases support it (PS,IE,Netscape,ACDSee, etc.), so I think it's the right choice. Am I missing something? Is there a reason I shouldn't use PNG? Thanks.
 
I don't think PNG is an all-pervasive format as TIF is. Its usage is still relatively low and on older systems you still need to install filters.

I prefer TIFs myself. I thought PNG was a lossy format?
 
PNG is definitely lossless. I haven't found any incompatibilities with any of the programs I regularly use. Most supported the format 2 releases ago. However, are TIFs better for downconversion (e.g., TIF->GIF/JPG) than PNGs? Or are they basically the same? Thanks.
 


<< PNG is definitely lossless. I haven't found any incompatibilities with any of the programs I regularly use. Most supported the format 2 releases ago. However, are TIFs better for downconversion (e.g., TIF->GIF/JPG) than PNGs? Or are they basically the same? Thanks. >>



They'll be the same. When you open a graphics file (of any type) it's virtually always decoded and/or decompressed into an array or other general format. All of them are handled the same way by the program (that's how when you open any file type all the different algorithms like despeckle, invert, swap RB, etc all can work for any image. once they're opened they're all handled identically). Now when you get ready to save (which a convert is just an open followed directly by a save) it just takes what data it has in memory and outputs to the target format. Any lossless format will end up the same in memory as another, and hence will compress to another format identically.
 
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