When scanning images, the intended use of the image is important. Are you planning on printing it, sending it as an email or using it on the web? Knowing what you want to do with the scanned image will help you choose the right format for your image. The most common file formats for images are tif, gif, jpg, bmp and psd (Photoshop).



Scanning for Print

If you are going to print out your scanned image, save it as a tif or bmp. The quality of gifs and jpgs in printed documents is inferior to tifs and bmps.

Scanning for Web

If you are going to use your scanned image on the web, save it as a gif or jpg file.

If it is a simple graphic image, save it as a gif file. If you will be scanning photos, save them as jpg files.

Multi-Purpose Scanning

If you are going to both print your scanned image and use it on the web, then save it in a high quality format (psd, tif, or bmp). If needed, you can always open this file later and save it as a web image.

File Formats

TIFF (extension: tif): Used for high-resolution image to be printed

GIF (extension: gif): Used for low-resolution web image, line art, or solid color

JPEG (extension: jpg): Used for low-resolution web image or photograph

Photoshop (extension: psd): Used for high-resolution image to be edited in Photoshop

Bitmap (extension: bmp): Used for high-resolution image to be printed

Knowing what you would like to do with the scanned image will help you choose the right file size. If you are going to use your image on the web, a medium to medium-low quality image will be quite sufficient.

A small image will also load faster on the web page. So you may prefer using lower sizes as the viewers of the image may get impatient waiting for a larger image to load.

For printed images, the file size may need to be higher depending on what type of a document you will use it in. The higher the file size the better the image quality. A higher- size file has a higher resolution. Resolution is the number of pixels (or dots) per inch of image (dpi).