Hi, I hope someone can answer this for me. I have saved all my images in JPEG format but I am now reading here that it is better to use PNG format. My question is, can I just open the image in PSP and do a "save copy as" then select PNG or since I already saved in JPEG format has the image already been degraded. In other words, do I have to start again or not? Thanks alot

You can't undegrade an image, unfortunately. If you can recreate the images without using lossy compression like that in JPEG images go ahead and do so. Particularly for drawings & text.

For photographs and such it may not make enough difference to matter.

It is better to use PNG, but that doesn't mean yo have to do your work over. JPG degrades with each time it is saved. So a first generation JPG that was saved a large enough size (say minimum 2000 pixels) should be just fine. Just make it a habit to use PNG in the future. You will also want to use PNG because JPG does not support transparency and you need transparency for dark apparel.

Thanks alot!

Hello there, although not an expert as such, I've been using / uploading images into files and posting them online for several years now. One thing that has to be said for JPGs, is they are a lot smaller ( in MBS ) than PNGs. What you may find useful is, starting off with PNG while you create / edit / re-edit / resave, then, when you know it is ready to be used on your product, then do a save as agaib, but then make it a JPG. This can potentially prevent a great deal of pixel / image quality loss. Cheers.

Arthur, that is all true and very relevant to web images, but these are images to be used on products and the upload size is nearly irrelevant. When you factor in the transparency issue, it really falls on the .png side of the coin.

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Originally posted by Arthur Potts:
****o there, although not an expert as such, I've been using / uploading images into files and posting them online for several years now. One thing that has to be said for JPGs, is they are a lot smaller ( in MBS ) than PNGs. What you may find useful is, starting off with PNG while you create / edit / re-edit / resave, then, when you know it is ready to be used on your product, then do a save as agaib, but then make it a JPG. This can potentially prevent a great deal of pixel / image quality loss. Cheers.

Actually that's not always true. Tranparent PNG files in excess of 2000 x 2000 that are simple hard edged graphics in a limited numbers of colors, and a lot of transparent areas e.g text designs are often less than 100KBs in my experience. (exported from Coreldraw with transparency)

That's usually not the case with a JPEG of the same design which saved at highest quality can be 5 mbs or more.

That said photographic designs saved in a PNG can be 30mbs or more whereas the same image saved in JPEG, even saved at the highest quality possible in Photoshop are usually little more than 5mbs.

So you're right in regard to photographic images. JPEGs are generally much smaller the PNG files. However for text or simpler designs. PNG file sizes are often amazingly small by comparison, which means uploads take seconds. So generally PNG is miles better for simple graphical and text designs.

Tip: Always save your base image as a PSP file, then Save Copy Of as you need them, in the format you need them.