Better to save in tiff or psd?

[Darkness]

Friends:

After I post process my image in Photoshop, is it better to save in Photoshop or Tiff format? What are the pros and cons?

Thanks amigos?

Migs

[girlsfather]

Tiff is the choice if you deliver the image to someone else, as it is readable by a wider range of applications.
PSD will produce smaller filesize (even smaller if the option maximize compatibility is not checked - cause if you check, a flattened version is saved within the file)
As you can (compress to) ZIP the Tiff later, using the OS, this is not really a problem.

So I send (most of the times flattened) Tiffs to the client.
Often I have to save the layered file as PSB, as the filesize of the layered file exceeds the 4GB limit.

So, as often, it depends, what you want to do with the file.
If you have Photoshop and want to archive, you can use psd.

[Darkness]

Hi girlsfather:

Tiff saves as layered files? Like the Photoshop layers? If this is so, when opened in PS do the layers come back?

Migs

[andrewrodney]

TIFF is a fully open file format (anyone can use it without paying a fee). PSD is the opposite. So far more software app’s can deal with a TIFF than a PSD for one. Next, expect for duotone support, anything you can save in a PSD you can save in a TIFF as well. Both are owned and controlled by Adobe but one is accessible to all. For that reason, I always save as TIFF (and often with Zip compression to save space albeit at a speed hit in opening and saving).

[Darkness]

Thanks Rodney!

[Repairman]

I save my images as layered PSD's on the off chance further modification will be required. I prefer to give my customers flattened tiffs to stop them fiddling with any of the elements in the retouched file!
R.

[Darkness]

Good idea repairman! I have seen many people share files for printing using Acrobat too. -Migs

[Der_W]

TIFF is great because it's compatible to many programs, but it's also dangerous because of that.
As TIFF is a Tagged Image File Format, if the tags one program writes are too complex for another program, it'll be a mess.
A closer inspection of the TIFF format can be found here: http://www.openphotographyforums.com...ad.php?t=14243

PSD on the other hand is only compatible to Photoshop, so it's not so easy to mess things up with other programs.

[Darkness]

Thanks for the insight Jonas!

[RobertAsh]

Jonas is right. TIFF is an attempt to be open and to address the thorny, serious problem of keeping our files usable for as long as possible, and it is overall accessible to more applications -- but TIFF has its own variations, too. Unless you save for the least common denominator of all of those, you're locking yourself out of some programs without even knowing which ones.

PSD is more closed as a format but it is monolithic and consistent. And rich in capabilities. And predictable (either an application supports PSD or it doesn't).

So unfortuately there is no free lunch. Both are good solutions depending on what you want to do. I use both for different situations. But I am using TIFF a lot more than I used to because some great non-Adobe programs like DxO Optics Pro and Capture One don't support PSD.