What format should I use?

[sjm]

I have many precious old photos from my husband's family. Most are the original and only copy in existence. I'm in the process of putting them on CDs and making copies to distribute to other family members just in case I have a fire, or am blown away by a hurricane.

I don't have the time right now to attempt restoration before I put them on CD, so what is the best format to access them later to work on? PSD or TIFF? The copies will be in JPEG so anyone can see them.

[thomasgeorge]

Sjm, I usually save unretouched stuff in TIFF after scanning in at between 300 -400 resolution. I choose TIFF as every image editor worthy of the name can open it and there are a few out there which wont handle PSD. Saves headaches. I usually store two files on a CD, one in JPEG and configured for e-mail and web or monitor viewing and a second in TIFF either unretouched or retouched depending on the situation, and at a resolution of 250(usual for my printing needs) or at the aforementioned resolution for unprocessed scans. It is a good idea you have there and putting two files on the master CD then copying to the others insures that there will be a copy avaliable somewhere should something occur. Tom