Page 28 - DCAP109_GRAPHIC_TOOLS

Unit 2: Designing and Desktop Publishing Tools

also serves as your working file. When we open an image in Photoshop, regardless of which file Notes
type the image was originally using, Photoshop temporarily converts it into a PSD file behind
the scenes so one can work on it with all of Photoshop’s tools, commands and features at our
disposal.
PSD files are your best choice to serve as your master files and for archiving to CD, DVD or an
external hard drive for safe keeping. If you’ve done any sort of editing work on an image and
there’s even the least chance you’ll need to come back to it again at some point in the future, save
your work as a Photoshop PSD file. There’s no loss in image quality no matter how many times
you reopen and re-save a PSD, and all of your layers, layer masks, adjustment layers and so on
will be saved as part of the file, allowing you to go back at any time and make changes to the
image or continue working from where you left off.

You can easily print your pictures at home with Photoshop directly from the PSD file, and many
commercial printers are now able to accept PSDs as well, although some may still require an EPS
or TIFF version of the file instead, so it’s always best to check with your printer to make sure
you’re giving them the format they need. One of the newer advantages with PSD files is that
they can now be imported directly into Adobe InDesign, giving you complete access to the
individual layers in the file as you’re designing your page layouts. You can even reopen a PSD
file in Photoshop directly from InDesign, make changes to the file, save it, and have the changes
immediately update in your layout!
The only real disadvantage to PSD files is that the file size can get very large, especially if you’re
working on an image with hundreds or even thousands of layers. But with computer hard drives
and memory being so cheap these days, it’s a small price to pay for the creative freedom that
Photoshop and its native PSD file format give us. Bottom line, your PSD file is the most important
file you can have, so be sure to save yourself a master copy of your work as a PSD file so you can
always return to it in Photoshop when you need it!

.JPEG

The JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) format has been around for practically 20 years
now and has come to be the most prevalent and widely utilized file format for review and
offering computerized photographs. It upholds 24-bit color, which means it can reproduce
roughly 16.7 million shades, and even the shabbiest digital cameras can catch pictures as JPEG
documents. Most high end digital SLR cameras give you the choice of capturing pictures in
either the JPEG or RAW form.

It’s important, however, not to confuse “prevalent” and “widely “ with “professional value”.
JPEG is what’s called a lossy file format in light of the fact that it compresses the pictures, which
basically means it takes some of your picture details and tosses it out the virtual window, never
to be perceived again. It does this to lessen file size, the more compression you use; the more
terrible your pictures look. You control the amount of compression being applied to the file
using the Quality setting that appears in Photoshop when you go to save it. A sufficiently high
Quality setting can even now produce awesome looking pictures yet your file size will be
larger. Lower Quality settings can generate exceptionally modest file sizes, however set too low
and you’ll present appalling and obvious compression artifacts.
The most amazing quality of JPEG records is convenience. They’re normally minor enough that
they can effectively be transferred and displayed on web pages, or on photograph imparting
destinations like Facebook and Flickr, and messaged to family and companions. Internet printing
aids for the most part need your photographs to be transferred as JPEG records. The downside to
JPEGs is that the reduced quality initiated by picture layering methods they’re not a great
decision for choice when picture value is your essential concern, and they’re likewise not a good
choice for archiving your originals. Depending on if you’re capturing JPEG files in your camera,

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