225: Thou shall learn about digital file formats

Commentary We’re really talking about the various image file formats here, all of which differ slightly and provide their own unique advantages. TIFFs (tagged image file format) remain a top choice for print workflows as they can accommodate embedded information such as alpha channels, meaning masks can be imported directly into a layout. Native Photoshop files are also a popular choice for the same reasons. JPEGs (Joint Photographic Experts Group) are great if you need to keep file sizes down but be careful how much compression you apply when saving as quality can suffer. A JPEG is also a bad choice if you think you’ll need to edit the image further down the line as quality is lost every time you save a JPEG. Forget about EPS files (encapsulated PostScript) as they’re rarely used now—go with ....TS