use “Save for Web”

Always use “Save for Web” when you’re putting it on the web! The file sizes are a lot smaller than they would otherwise be.

Yea, I’ve always done that, but Photoshop still saves it as a PS JPEG. Strage format, it seems. What’s the difference between a JPEG and a PS JPEG? I’m just a person that likes consistency, so it bothers me to see a different icon than the rest of my JPEG images, and apparently a different file format.

I wouldn’t recommend using the ‘save for web’ function when posting your photographs to the web. Using this function does create a smaller file, but it produces a washed out photo – it will never look as good as it would if you just saved it normally. Of course, I haven’t used CS before, so it may be different now.

Adam-

I don’t believe PS is actually creating a different file format. Rather, it’s just attaching itself as the creator of the file, and thereby becomes the default application for that file. I’m not sure if there’s a way around this or not. But, on a Mac, there are two distinct properties for each file: type, and creator. So, you may have a JPEG with the creator “Preview”, another JPEG with the creator “Photoshop CS,” and yet another with the creator “Fireworks MX.” All the files are the same type, but the creator indicator simply remembers which app you used to create it so that if you double click the file, it will open in that app.

And, as a disclaim, I’ll say that I’m only about 95% sure all of this is correct. :)

Oh, I see! Thanks for the great explanation, Jeff. It makes perfect sense, and I think you’re 100% correct. :) All of my other JPEGs have Preview as the creator because they were imported with iPhoto.

Adam, nice site. Here’s a tip… ALWAYS save your photos as a TIFF, RAW, or EPS file. These formats are “lossless” meaning you don’t lose any quality during compression that happens when you save the image from Photoshop. So in other words, every single time you resave a jpeg file, it loses quality again. So keep things in photoshop or tiff format so this doesn’t happen.

There are some great tutorials on how to work with some of the new stuff in CS, specifically batch processing camera raw files.

Just thought I’d share this with you for your photography stuff, it’s something I’ve been interested in lately.

Yes, Jeff Croft is 100% correct. You can change the creator with FileInfo http://www.panix.com/~shopsinm/ , a nice and free app for Mac OS

Just a quick tip on reducing file size when exporting from PS on Mac: if you’re familiar with the command line, using cp to copy the exported image will strip off the *huge* custom icon and the PS creator type and leave you with just a raw .jpeg image. Definitely the quick way to do it if you export a folder full of images (like slices) because you can add -R to recursively copy all the files in a directory at once.

Concerning RAW files, it is actually disadvantageous to re-save files in that format once opened (even though it is lossless). For maximum quality, shoot in RAW format and keep a copy of that “digital negative”, but it is far more advantageous to save in TIFF, EPS or PSD once the file is opened in your image editor.

Photoshop = shit