PSD or TIFF or JPG or PNG?

[Andy Neil]

I haven’t myself noticed any particular issue or preference with certain file types. I use png and tiff a lot for hi-rez photos, but jpgs as well without incident.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Kevin Patrick]

I believe jpg compression is more lossy than png. So png can, or should produce better results. I would assume this would be most noticable in images with gradients. Darkest areas would probably have less noise in them than with png as opposed to jpg. At least I think that’s what a photo person might say.

I’m not a compression expert, so I’m not sure which is easier for FCP X to handle, jpg or png? Pro Res is a larger file size than some highly compressed stuff and is easier for an NLE to handle. I’m not sure if, or how this might apply to png and jpgs? Is there a big difference between compression complexity for these two?

I did notice that when you want to export a frame from FCP X, the default (which apparently you can’t change) is png. Does that mean FCP X is happier with png? Or was the person who wrote that export code at Apple just a big png fan?

PNG does of course give you an alpha channel for transparency, which jpg does not.

I guess I’ve not used enough of either to notice any performance differences. I suppose it would be worth while to test this out.

[Rafael Amador]

[Kevin Patrick] “I believe jpg compression is more lossy than png. So png can, or should produce better results. I”
At top quality JPEG is loseless but still uses a compression scheme so its adds an extra step when used in any application.
PNG is Raw 8b RGB so should make the process easier.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Jp Chan]

I just spent an entire day debugging an FCP X project that was hanging like crazy. The issue turned out to be four stacked PSD files with titles over them.

I made TIFFs of the original PSDs and replaced them, which fixed the problem. This is something I used to do pretty regularly with FCP 7 (with PSDs and JPEGs), but I was surprised to see that X had similar issues.

Haven’t had much experience using PNGs. It seems like the issue is with compression, so I just use TIFF to avoid all that.

JP

—
http://www.jpchan.com

[Dave Gage]

Thank you all for the replies. I was thinking I would end up with either PNG or TIFF so I’m glad to hear your thoughts. I like Kevin’s point that FCP X exports a frame as a PNG, so it does imply that it prefers PNG. I’ll give it a shot.

Thanks again,
Dave

[Andreas Kiel]

i always like layered TIFFs since they keep all the layer stuff, effects etc compared to flattened file formats like JPEG or PNG.
You might give it a try.

Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Dave Gage]

Andreas,

I haven’t had a need at this point for layer support, but I may for a new tutorial intro I’m making. I’ve give it shot.

Thanks,
Dave

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Andreas Kiel] “i always like layered TIFFs since they keep all the layer stuff, effects etc compared to flattened file formats like JPEG or PNG.”

It appears that layered TIFFs imported into FCPX get flattened (no layers come through) just as with PSDs – unless I’m missing something.

(Thanks for the great plug-ins, Andreas! You’re a hero.)

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Andy Neil]

[Simon Ubsdell] “It appears that layered TIFFs imported into FCPX get flattened (no layers come through) just as with PSDs – unless I’m missing something.”

I read Andreas’ post to mean that with layered TIFFs you can easily go back into photoshop and make changes like you would with a PSD, but get better overall compatibility in FCPX. There is currently no image format that translates to layers inside FCPX.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com