GIMP Editing

[Dan AU]

Hi,

What is the best picture format for editing a picture in GIMP. What I do at the moment is adjust curves etc in DPP and then export to a JPEG and do any manipulation inside GIMP.


Is it best to use JPG, or TIF(8 bit) or another format. I tried ufraw but when the image opens in this it blows out the exposure for some reason.

Thanks.

[ricktas]

If GIMP allows, use TIF, its a non lossy format, so you can work on your photo, save it, and come back to it later to continue working. JPG is a lossy format so if you did the above, the quality will reduce each time you save it.

Downside, TIF files are huge and need a lot more HDD space to store them.

[bigdazzler]

if its a work in progress always export from gimp as a tiff .. for the reasons Rick outlined above , you wont lose quality due to compression each time you open and resave the file. As Rick said , its a non lossy format and they definitely are huge !! Im working on one as we speak and its 38mb ..

when youre finished with it you can then save as a high quality jpg ..

[Kym]

The latest GIMP can save as PSD so why not? - not lossy - and smaller than TIFF.

[Dan AU]

Thanks for the advice, I will start exporting from DPP as TIFF to make my modifications.

PSD that is photoshop file isn't it?

[jev]

For intermediate files, stick with XCF. Yes, I know it's not something that is widely used by other programs, but it is GiMP's native format which makes it most likely from all supported formats to contain all functionality GiMP has to offer. TIF is a good format for archival purposes but does not retain layer information (this is an implementation issue, the TIF format itself does feature some types of layers but there's hardly any software out there that support it).

PSD is good for exchange to PhotoShop and friends, but you risk that someday you use a PSD exported image in another program after which GiMP is not able to read it back correctly. Last but not least, XCF is smaller than PSD.