Format for photo prints

[naserke]

All my photos are in RAW format and I want to get prints for few of my photos. Which format is best to get prints for my photos. JPEG or TIFF or some other?

[OsmosisStudios]

If youre getting prints, a TIFF will yield marginally better quality. That being said, many places dont accept TIFFs. JPG is the de facto standard.

[Raoul Isidro]

Most photo printing facilites around here in malls and shopping centers cannot read RAW. Either you have to convert them to another format, or have your camera set at RAW+JPG, and use the jpg.
Cheers!

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by Raoul Isidro

Most photo printing facilites around here in malls and shopping centers cannot read RAW. Either you have to convert them to another format, or have your camera set at RAW+JPG, and use the jpg.
Cheers!

A RAW file is not technically an image until it's processed. That explains things.

[EdelineM]

i was asking the same thing but non answer my thread

[PrimeTime]

Originally Posted by EdelineM

i was asking the same thing but non answer my thread

Sorry you didn't get answered. That will happen from time to time. If it ever happens again, don't be shy to bring your thread back up to the top and usually someone will answer.

[naserke]

Thanks... I will use TIFF format for prints.

[Swisstony10]

The print lab that I use accepts Jpeg if I'm firing an order in by email, but if I'm using their FTP service, I can use TIFF instead if I want (which I generally do). For prints above a certain size they prefer TIFF. The reason they only accept Jpegs for email orders is because the TIFF versions are just massive (my uncompressed TIFFs are generally upwards of 60Mb each).

I have a feeling the little machines in the mall that'll give you cheap prints when you plug your memory card in are usually geared to Jpeg - although I could be wrong.

Basically, if you just want some snapshot prints so you can look at your pictures, bang 'em down to Jpeg and get them printed at Walmart. If you're taking really nice pictures that totally deserve to be mounted and framed and hung on the wall so people can enjoy them properly, get them done by a proper print lab with the highest quality you can manage. It'll be worth it..

Russ.

[BCampbell]

You should ask your print service if they can print 16 bit TIFF files. This is the most important distinction; your camera RAW files are 12 or 14 bit¹, JPG is 8 bit. This means that there is less possible color information.

TIFF can be either 8-bit or 16-bit . You can't really upsample 12 or 14 bits to 16, but dropping down to 8 obviously loses color data, so saving as a 16 bit TIFF preserves the full color data of your RAW photo. You won't notice this on your computer screen, but if your printer can output to 16 bits, you have a wider color gamut than at 8.

The flipside of this is that if your printer only outputs up to 8 bits, it will simply downsample your 16 bit file.

Hope this helps.

¹the only digital cameras I know of that process 16-bit RAW are medium format, but I could be wrong

[EdelineM]

Originally Posted by PrimeTime

Sorry you didn't get answered. That will happen from time to time. If it ever happens again, don't be shy to bring your thread back up to the top and usually someone will answer.

nah is alright.. its the same question as this btw..
thank youu