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    Reducing tif size in Photoshop

    I know this may seem like a silly question but does anybody know a way to reduce the size of TIFF images without reducing the dimension size of the images? I really want to do this in Photoshop, but am a bit lost.

    I understand that TIFF images are not compressed. So I don't really see how this would be possible without reducing quality. So, is there a way I can reduce the quality of a TIFF image to reduce the data size?

    Forgive the ignorance but I appreciate the feedback.

    Frank
    Frank Zwolinski
    Researching: Zwolinski, Zubris, Ward, Wichlacz, Six, Sidney/Sypniewskie, Rickner, Mulligan, McElroy, Maciejewski, Loisy, Lindsay, Konjey, Konieczki, Janick, Ellis, Cornish, Chlebowski, Sass, Soch.
    MacBook Pro, OS X 10.8.5, Reunion 11, FireFox 38.0.5, Safari 6.2.2

    #2
    Re: Reducing tif size in Photoshop

    Originally posted by Frank Zwolinski View Post
    Does anybody know a way to reduce the size of TIFF images without reducing the dimension size of the images? I really want to do this in Photoshop, but am a bit lost.

    I understand that TIFF images are not compressed. So I don't really see how this would be possible without reducing quality. So, is there a way I can reduce the quality of a TIFF image to reduce the data size?
    TIFF images can be compressed; what makes them different from .jpgs is that the type of compression used needn't be "lossy".

    Generally when you save a TIFF in Photoshop, you'll see a dialog that is titled "TIFF Options". The first option is for Image Compression. You can choose the type of compression you want to use: None, LZW, ZIP, or JPEG.

    If you choose none, there will be no compression and the file will be full size.
    If you choose LZW, the file size will be smaller, with no loss of resolution.
    If you choose ZIP, the file size will be smaller, with no loss of resolution.
    If you choose JPEG, the file size will be smaller, but you will lose resolution (and so pretty much defeat the reason you're choosing TIFF in the first place.)

    You can also change how layers are saved (ZIP for smallest files), but this will not make a very big difference in file size for most files. However, choosing not to save layers may make a difference.

    Which is the long way of saying "save your TIFF files as flattened (no layers) with LZW compression" to save space.

    And yes, you can reduce the quality of your images to save space. From the "Image" menu, choose "Image size..." and set the resolution in the resulting dialog box. This changes the number of pixels per inch while maintaining the size of the image.

    Resetting a 1x1" image from 300 pixels/inch to 72 pixels/inch changes the file size from 215.2K to 12.4K.

    I don't think this is a good idea for the main copy of an image though. I would use an LZW compressed TIFF as your main file, and if you need a smaller one (to share with relatives through e-mail, for example), use a JPG.
    Dennis J. Cunniff
    Click here to email me

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      #3
      Re: Reducing tif size in Photoshop

      If you save it as a compressed TIFF, it has to be uncompressed to display the image. Is that correct? Since Reunion just uses links to files in your directory structure, would the images of a compressed TIFF display in Reunion?

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        #4
        Re: Reducing tif size in Photoshop

        Originally posted by Dennis J. Cunniff View Post

        Which is the long way of saying "save your TIFF files as flattened (no layers) with LZW compression" to save space.
        Dennis,

        This is what I was looking for, thank you!

        Frank
        Frank Zwolinski
        Researching: Zwolinski, Zubris, Ward, Wichlacz, Six, Sidney/Sypniewskie, Rickner, Mulligan, McElroy, Maciejewski, Loisy, Lindsay, Konjey, Konieczki, Janick, Ellis, Cornish, Chlebowski, Sass, Soch.
        MacBook Pro, OS X 10.8.5, Reunion 11, FireFox 38.0.5, Safari 6.2.2

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          #5
          Re: Reducing tif size in Photoshop

          Originally posted by randy_godfrey View Post
          If you save it as a compressed TIFF, it has to be uncompressed to display the image. Is that correct?
          Yes, just as a .jpg file has to be uncompressed to be displayed. Any program that displays pictures ought to be able to do such uncompression on the fly for .jpg and .tif files; I can't think of one that doesn't.

          You're not making a new kind of file, as you do when you make a .zip file, and you don't require special software for decompressing it; the compression is part of the specification for both .tiff and .jpeg files, though with .tiff files you can specify no compression.

          Originally posted by randy_godfrey View Post
          Since Reunion just uses links to files in your directory structure, would the images of a compressed TIFF display in Reunion?
          Reunion handles TIFF files (with or without compression) with no difficulty.
          Dennis J. Cunniff
          Click here to email me

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            #6
            Re: Reducing tif size in Photoshop

            Good information Dennis. Thank you.

            Randy

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