Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
UP TO SPEED: FILE FORMATS
After you've spent hours creating a perfect image, you'll want to share it with others. If everyone
who wanted to view your images needed a copy of Elements, you probably wouldn't have a very
large audience for your creations. So Elements lets you save in lots of different
file formats
.
What does that mean? It's pretty simple, really. A file format is a way in which your computer
saves information so that another program or computer can read and use the file.
Because there are many different kinds of programs and several different computing platforms
(Windows, Linux, and Mac, for example), the kind of file that's best for one use may be a poor
choice for doing something else. That's why many programs, like Elements, can save files in a
variety of formats. There are many formats, like TIFF and JPEG, that lots of different programs
can read. Other formats—like the PUB files that Microsoft Publisher creates or the .pages files
from Apple's Pages program—are easily read only by the program that created them.
File Formats Elements Understands
Elements gives you loads of file-format options in the Save As dialog box. (See the box on
File Formats
for a quick introduction to file formats.) Your best choice depends on how you
plan to use the image. Here's a rundown of the various options in the Save As dialog box's
“Save as type” menu (this menu is labeled “Format” on Macs):
▪
Photoshop (.psd, .pdd)
. It's a good idea to save photos as .psd files—the native file
format of Elements and Photoshop—before you work on them. A .psd file can hold lots
of information, and you don't lose any data by saving in this format. It also lets you keep
layers, which is important even if you haven't used them for much yet.
▪
BMP (.bmp)
. This format is an old Windows standby. It's the file format that Windows
uses for many graphics tasks.
▪
CompuServe GIF (.gif)
. Everywhere except this menu, this format is known simply as
GIF; Adobe adds “CompuServe” because CompuServe invented and owns the code for
this format. This format is used primarily for web graphics, especially files without a lot
of subtle shadings of color. For more on when to choose GIFs, see
Chapter 17
.
Creating
Animated GIFs
explains how to
animate
GIFs.
▪
Photo Project Format (.pse)
. This special format is only for multipage Elements files.
These days, you can create a multipage file in only a few of Elements' Create projects,
