I have a new digital camera and the first batch of pics are jpegs. I don't use jpegs much unless it's to make a copy a file (like psd) for web viewing, so, I rarely start w/ a jpeg image. Anyway, I like some of these pics and want to save them to a disk and possibly work on them in PS7. But, I'm under the impression that I'm limited in what I can do w/ these jpegs and maintain the quality. Can I sharpen them? Make them grayscale? Change size-they're huge?

Also, is there a way to save a file of these jpegs w/ thumbnail views rather than a bunch of numbers that I don't know hat they are??? Is there a way to save them on a disk w/ thumbnail view as well?

OK, first of all, for most part, the jpg images you have are perfectly valid images. You can save them to disk, print them out, etc., but I would also save a copy of them as TIF or PSD files.

If you've got any editing to do, work on the non-jpg versions.

The reason for this being that jpg is a lossy compression system, therefore each time you do a save after working on them, you will compound the degredation of the original image.

By using the TIF or PSD versions this will not happen, as both are lossless systems.

Okay,so I CAN save the jpeg as a PSD or TIF which is what I'm used to working w/ anyway. I'd leave my jpegs as is, make a psd to edit and not have to worry about compression issues...thanks, I got it.. :pleased:

I'm tired of looking at a bunch of numbers both in my file and on the disk.
i don't want to go through 20 pics before I get to the one I want. :dizzy:

I use PS7, as my editor, so I use File/Automate/Contact Sheet to produce a contact sheet of all the images in a folder.

I then save it as the first image in the relevant folder.

Alternatively name it as CS(folder name), and save in a folder with other contact sheets.

Don't know which image editor you use, so this solution may or may not be of use to you.

if your using Photoshop the gallery or bridge will automatically display thumbnails, XP can display thumbnails of most graphics formats where a thumbnail is embedded in the file - this includes PSD files saved from Photoshop, the only ones I have found that don't display a thumbnail is PSD files created in Painter.

Christine

I use Photoshop 7 too. Thanks for the good ideas.

I used Gary's idea for saving a contact sheet and it worked great. I also wanted to save a copy of the contact sheet on my CD-RW w/ the pics. But, it said that it couldn't be moved/copied because the CD-RW file can't be altered. Why? I thought you could add things to CD-RW's that's what makes them different from a regular CDR??? I think I'm missing a piece of the puzzle here.

Why? I thought you could add things to CD-RW's that's what makes them different from a regular CDR??? I think I'm missing a piece of the puzzle here.Here's the piece....
A CD-RW can be RE-written, but to do that you have to erase the whole CD and start over.
A CD-R or a CD-RW are both the same when it comes to adding files. When you "burn" some files to a CD you may see an option to close the CD or to leave it open. This is the difference. A drag-and-drop-type write in Windows XP should leave the CD open for other files, a session of burning using Nero (or others...) may close the CD.

Watch out for the option.

Rô

I'm sorry, I guess I'm not fully understanding how a CD-RW works :dizzy:
I don't remember seeing those options. I'm using a Mac, but I don't know if that makes a difference.

photoshop CS (if you want to upgrade) also comes with a built-in thumbnail viewing utility which allows you to set up a means of accessing freqently viewed folders and "favorite" folders faster. It basically uses a thumnail system with EXIF/meta-data off to the left side, accompanied by a larger thumbail. Just double click or hit ENTER to open the image. It also allows for automated batch processing straight from the browser plugin, too. Just remember not to botch your originals!!!