Digital File Formats for Design, Digital Photography and Film
A file format is the structure of how information is stored (encoded) in a computer file. File formats are designed to store specific types of information, such as JPEG and TIFF for image or raster data, AI (Adobe Illustrator) for vector data, or PDF for document exchange.
A big reason that so many file formats exists is the need for compressing, or making the files smaller for Internet downloads, emailing, or displaying the files. With modern digital cameras the image files can be quite large. A larger file means more disk usage and slower downloads. "Compression" is a term used to describe ways of reducing file sizes with minimal impact on the final look of the file.
Another factor that impacts the file format selection is the number of colors contained in the image. A logo file with crisp lines will have fewer colors than a picture with many shades of the same color.
File formats for Graphic Design and Digital Photography
The most common file formats in Photoshop are:
JPEG(mostly used for web based images)
TIFF (mostly used for print images)
EPS (mostly used for print images)
> Print/Press ready files should be set at:
300 dpi
RBG or CMYK colour mode
Saved As - TIFF, JPEG, PDF
> Web ready files should be set as:
72 dpi to 100 dpi
RGB colour
Saved As - JPEG ONLY
PDF - Portable Document Format’. PDF is a multi-platform file format developed by Adobe Systems. A PDF file captures document text, fonts, images, and even formatting of documents from a variety of applications. You can e-mail a PDF document to your friend and it will look the same way on his screen as it looks on yours, even if he has a Mac and you have a PC. Since PDFs contain color-accurate information, they should also print the same way they look on your screen.
To view a PDF file, you need Adobe Reader, a free application program distributed by Adobe Systems. Adobe also makes an Acrobat Plug-in for Web browsers that enables PDF files to be viewed inside a browser window.
TIFF
Tagged Image File Format (abbreviated TIFF) is a file format for mainly storing images, including photographs and line art. Originally created by the company Aldus for use with PostScript printing, TIFF is a popular format for high color depth images, along with JPEG and PNG. TIFF format is widely supported by image-manipulation applications such as Photoshop and Adobe InDesign.
TIFF is a very flexible format. TIFF file format uses no compression at all and is compatible with a variety of editors. TIFF file sizes are larger than JPEG file types.
TIFF means better quality. However, the file size is huge compared to even the best JPG setting, and the advantages may not be noticeable. Use it as a "working" file format when you may be sharing it with people with other editing software.
JPEG
In computing, JPEG (pronounced jay-peg) is a most commonlyfor photographic images.The name stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG is the format most used for storing and transmitting photographs on the World Wide Web. It is not as well suited for line drawings and other textual or iconic graphics because its compression method performs badly on these types of images.
JPEG is optimized for photographs and images with a wide range of colors that contain many, many colors. JPG can achieve great compression ratios while maintaining great image quality for the intended use. JPG works by discarding picture information that the eye is least likely to notice. Better graphics programs, such as Photoshop, allow you to view the image quality and file size as a function of compression level, so that you can choose the balance between quality and file size.
JPEG is the most common format for nearly all photographs on the web. It will render excellent quality at higher compression settings. When editing, use your software's proprietary format until finished, and then save a copy in the JPG format.
Digital cameras typically save in a JPG format by default.
JPG is an excellent format for digital photographers to store their final image and to reduce the size of their image for emails and web posting.
PSD
PSD are formats used by graphics programs. Photoshop's files have the PSD extension. These are the preferred working formats as you edit images in the software. If you are planning to share these files save them into a TIFF format.
EPS
Encapsulated PostScript, or EPS, is a graphics file format. An EPS file is a PostScript file which satisfies additional restrictions. These restrictions are intended to make it easier for software to embed an EPS file within another PostScript document.Like the TIFF file, but uses up more space ie: RAM.
File formats for Digital Audio and Video Editing
Video and multimedia files are a huge group of file formats, which contain digitally capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion and of course captured or recorded audio. This means movie, film, video and other multimedia files are basically data container formats that are used for audio-with-video playback. Even if there is a large number of video existing, only some are used a standard for computers, multimedia equipment, cinemas, home theaters, portable players or other devices.
The most used video file formats today are:
AVI - a common movie and computer video container file format. AVI is abbreviation for Audio Video Interleave format developed by Microsoft and it’s based on Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF). Audio or video content can be compressed with a wide variety of video or audio and video codecs and can be stored in an .avi file, but the codecs (DivX, XVID, MP3, AAC) it self must be installed in operating system and supported by the multimedia device (DVD player, portable player etc.).
MPG - (MPEG), a video format developed by Moving Picture Experts Group. MPEG is an ISO standard used by many multimedia devices (DVD players, Blu-RAY, portable players, computers).
VOB - a DVD Video object file. A .vobfile is a container file which includes most of the movie data, including the video and audio streams, along with subtitles and any other DVD menu features. DVD uses the MPEG-2 compression.
MP4 - a MPEG-4 multimedia file format based on ISO standard MPEG-4. The MPEG-4 file format, as defined by the MPEG-4 specification, contains MPEG-4 encoded video and advanced audio coding (AAC)-encoded audio content.
MOV – an apple QuickTime multimedia container format that can store one or more tracks of data such as video, audio, text, and effects.
Audio Video Interleaved (AVI)
This is a format for motion picture files developed by Microsoft that conforms to standards set by Microsoft Windows Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF). .AVI stands for Audio Video Interleaved and works with applications that capture, edit and playback audio and video, like Windows Movie Maker. Because it is windows-based, .avi format is virtually universal.
AVI contains multiple streams of different type data, including a control track and separate video and audio streams.As with all Microsoft products, this format is extremely common. .AVI is known for good video quality and commonality. AVI creates relatively large compressed files that retain high quality.
Adobe Flash Video Format (FLV)
Flash video, which is given the file extension .flv is perhaps the most common format on the web today. You’ll see the .FLV file extension on videos encoded by Adobe Flash software to play on Adobe Flash Player. Virtually everyone has these since they’re free downloads. Flash delivers more video over the Internet than any other file format.Flash Video is viewable on most operating systems, via the widely available Adobe Flash Player and web browser plug-in. You can trust the fact that Flash is virtually universal.
MOV (Apple video format for the Macintosh)
Although QuickTime was developed by Apple for the Macintosh, QuickTime files are the closest thing the Web has to a standard cross-platform movie format (with MPEG a close second). The Apple system software includes QuickTime and a simple player (called MoviePlayer or SimplePlayer). For PCs, QuickTime files can be played through the QuickTime for Windows package. QuickTime movies have the extension .mov.
WMV (Windows Media Video)
A wmv file includes a video stream (compressed using MS MPEG4 or WMV1 codec) combined with WMA encoded audio stream. The file format is proprietary and backward incompatible. You may wish to use Windows Media format to create smallest files that are suitable to send by e-mail, however you must keep in mind that .WMV file works like "one way ticket" - once created, it can't be edited anymore, without horrific quality loss. As opposite, AVI files compressed with MPEG4 video codec are still editable and often it is possible to retain source video quality.
MP3
MP3 is a standard technology and format for compressing a sound sequence into a very small file (about one-twelfth the size of the original file) while preserving the original level of sound quality when it is played. MP3 files are available for downloading from a number of Web sites. Many Windows users will find that they have a player built into their operating system. Otherwise, you can download a player from one of several popular MP3 sites. MP3 files are usually download-and-play files rather than streaming sound files.
.