PNG vs TIFF The Format That Wont Hurt Your Scanned PhotosFrom your site and the other information Ive found on the net, I think we should scan our photo collections in TIFF, at 6. You dont cover TIFF versus other formats in your articles, but I see you are using that format and there seems to be general acceptance that it is the best format for archiving. What do you think of the PNG format  Peter Fuller Wellington, New Zealand Peter, that is a great question. And youre right, up until now I have not covered what I feel is the best file formats to save scanned photos with. But, as you astutely noticed, I did sort of allude to my personal choice in a couple of my posts. Especially in some of my images I used in my 3 part naming convention series you brought up called What Everyone Ought to Know When Naming Your Scanned Photos. I think your question actually deserves a slightly more complex answer than I could normally get away with. Had you simply asked, Which do you prefer for scanning photos, the TIFF or PNG format, I would feel comfortable quickly answering you that in my humble opinion, the TIFF format is by far more superior for the purpose of scanning photos. Nintendo-Power-June-2001-145.jpg' alt='Nintendo Power Pdf Archive Format' title='Nintendo Power Pdf Archive Format' />But, since you brought up your interest in archiving your photographs, I want to make sure I elaborate a bit more to explain why our personal goals of scanning need to be considered when making the final decision which file format to save our master image files. PNG vs. TIFF Files So Which IS BetterExample Domain. This domain is established to be used for illustrative examples in documents. You may use this domain in examples without prior coordination or asking. Peter, that is a great question. And youre right, up until now I have not covered what I feel is the best file formats to save scanned photos with. PDF is a popular file format for its ease of use and security. Heres how to fix corrupt PDF files in case you have damaged files on hand. Nintendo Power was a news and strategy magazine which was initially published inhouse monthly by Nintendo of America, and later independently. PNG files Portable Network Graphic were invented to replace the GIF format Graphics Interchange Format that was quite popular at the time for images on the internet. They really werent intended to be used for professional quality photos. Currently on the internet, you will primarily see JPEG and PNG files followed by the lingering GIFS. PNG files can only be saved compressed lossless reduces file sizecan hold an alpha channel I use PNG files here on the SYEL website a good portion of the time because they have small files sizes and I love being able to use the alpha channel. This is a fancy way of describing a compositing process where the image can have a transparent background so you can lay it on top of another image and use it as the first images background. Its very cool And in case youre wondering, no, JPEG files dont do alpha channels. TIFF files Tagged Image File Format on the other hand can be opened with almost every image program its an extremely common formatcan be saved compressed or uncompressedcan store layers within great for use with Adobes high end Photoshop for examplecan hold all color, color depths and color groups like RGB and CMYKcan save 1. IPTC metadata captions etc. In my opinion, one of the biggest reasons not to use the PNG format for photo scanning and more importantly archiving photos is because its a form of compression. Its a form of compression called lossless, which as you might already know, means that your photo will be saved without having any of the data details of your photo tossed out. However, the image is still undergoing a very complex process using a mathematical algorithm to compress the file so that it will take up less space on your hard drive. So let me explain why this should be important to you. Do You Have Basic or Advanced Goals To keep it simple, if you are about to scan your entire photo collection, you are probably going to fall into one of the following two categories. First, you might be the type of person that just wants to get a good looking scan of all of your photographs as quickly and easily as possible. If you feel this might describe your needs, I like to say that you are someone with basic goals. Now dont take that the wrong way. I dont mean to say basic in a negative way. The fact that you are even wanting to scan your photos already says a lot about how much you care about your collection. When Peter brought up archiving, to me it implies hes stepping into the shoes of someone in the second category. Someone with advanced goals is a person I feel is invested from the very beginning to make the decisions that will insure everything they do throughout the workflow of scanning, correcting and managing their photos, will preserve every last bit of image quality detail they reasonably can. Those with advanced goals also are willing to sacrifice more of their time and possibly money which in many cases is not that much more for the ability to create and store these higher quality images. Let me quickly add, having advanced goals is by no means exclusive to those seeking the level of perfection a lifelong professional in the graphic arts field would produce. You dont need to be an expert to have advanced goals. We all have our own personal limitations and expectations for our collection. Settings panel when saving a TIFF file in Photoshop CS5. Mac Notice there are three compression options or none What I Really Think of Compression I believe in my heart, that if you are going to really go at archiving your entire photo collection I mean really give it your all you should scan them with adequately high DPI settings, save them raw without lots of filters and computations altering the outcome of the master image during the scan, and save and archive them uncompressed. I know this might be asking a lot of you, but the sacrifice has its rewards. Autodesk Maya 2014 Extension Manager here. If you are considering compressing your images, to save hard drive space or ease the processing load on your current computer, just know you are taking steps toward the side of people with more basic goals. I just want to make sure you understand this. Many may disagree with me, but I consider compression, even the lossless kind, to be an act of compromise to the overall integrity of your collection. The hugely popular JPEG file format Joint Photographic Experts Group also uses compression. And its even more severe because its a form of lossy compression. Lossy means your file size will typically be even smaller than that of lossless, but at the cost of reduced image quality. And once the detail is gone its gone. If youre lucky, your eye wont be able to see whats now missing. Even worse, every time you re save a JPEG as a JPEG, you are tossing out even more information in addition to the information you got rid of before. Its compounding detail loss Non destructive image managers will however automatically protect you from this additional image loss when you make edits to your photos inside. This is why I highly recommend everyone start using one. Check out Use 1 of These 4 Photo Managers If You Care About Your Photo Collection Additionally, and I know this is really more theoretical, the second you bring to the table the option of compressing your masters, you introduce a greater possibility for file corruption. Youre putting more trust in that mathematical formula to destruct your photo now and reconstruct it later than you may want to give it. Some formats have so many variant types of compression, who is to say that shareware graphics program you found one day off the internet to compress your images will be around 2. What if  their proprietary scheme doesnt open correctly in the version of Photoshop you buy in the futureThen what are you going to do The Best Format to Save Your Scanned Photos You are the safest saving your master images in the most common, nonproprietary format that you possible can.