Best file format for photos

[Guest]

What is the best format for photos? JPG'S seem to degrade after awhile. I'm
doing a presentation run through a projector. Each slide has 1 to 3 photos
with the person's name and the school they work at in a text box below the
picture. I'll have a total of about 150 slides.

I'm using Photoshop 7 and Power Point 2000

 

[Guest]

I'm surprised to hear of your experience of .jpg's "degrading" after a while.
I've found them to be the easiest to manipulate given the right resolution
and size. You might try using .tif files although they can make your
presentation much larger than necessary.

Rich

 

[Echo S]

I'd probably go with PNG here. But that's just me.

Be sure to check What's all this about DPI and INCHES and RESOLUTION?
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00075.htm

and

http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com/powerpointgraphics.htm for info on
right-sizing your photos for PPT.

 

[Ute Simon]

I'm surprised to hear of your experience of .jpg's "degrading" after a
while.
I've found them to be the easiest to manipulate given the right resolution
and size. You might try using .tif files although they can make your
presentation much larger than necessary.

Hi Rich,

JPG files are small, because JPG uses compression, but the method used is
not lossless, thus the quality of JPGs degrade, if they are saved and
resaved.

Hi Diane,

I would not recommend using TIF files, if you have so many photos, as they
are usually big. My recommendation would be to use PNG files. The file size
is slightly larger than JPGs, but the compression method used is lossless.

If it is possible for you, crop and resize them in an image editing program
such as Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, GIMP, etc. Then use the function File -
Export for Web (in Photoshop) or PNG-Optimization (in Paint Shop Pro), thus
you can judge the quality of the image before saving it.

Kind regards,
Ute

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

What is the best format for photos? JPG'S seem to degrade after awhile.

JPGs are ordinarily fine but if you're going to do much image editing, you
should save to JPG only once you're done. Opening and saving a JPG repeatedly
can definitely send the image on a slow trip through the meatgrinder.

Saving to JPG as the last step before inserting the image into PPT should be
fine. PNGs tend to give a bit better quality but are larger, so it's a
tradeoff.

doing a presentation run through a projector. Each slide has 1 to 3 photos
with the person's name and the school they work at in a text box below the
picture. I'll have a total of about 150 slides.

You might want to have a look at http://merge.pptools.com
It could save you quite a bit of time