Philbert Photography

TIFF vs PSD in Lightroom

Details: Category: Blog

I was asked this question during a meet up while discussing/babbling about how I use Lightroom and why I save my Final edits in TIFF Format ... I could not remmber why but I had to do some research, I usally dont do things for no reason.
PSD files are usually smaller than TIFF files because the PSD format has compression built into it to make the files smaller. This is lossless compression, and doesn't affect the contents of the file - you can open it, save it close it numerous times without affecting the quality of the image it contains.
TIFF files are not as compressed (if you choose LZW compression) or aren't compressed at all if you don't compress them, and so are much larger, but contain the same information about the image they contain.

Main reason WHY I use TIFF

TIFF has better support for metadata changes/updates.
TIFF is publicly documented, PSD is not. That makes TIFF a preferred file format for the long term conservation of digital files.
TIFF can save EVERYTHING a PSD can save including layers, paths, channels, transparency, annotations and can go up to 4 GIGS in file size.
TIFF can save all the color spaces PSD can.
TIFF is better for printing (so I hear)
TIFF is public, even if it's owned by Adobe (by virtue of the Aldus purchase). Even if Adobe went belly up tomorrow, TIFF would continue.

TIFF uses ZIP compression for max compression, PSD uses RLE which if you save without the Max compatibility will be a bit smaller, but at the risk of not being able to be used by apps, like Lightroom. PSD is now a bastardized file format that is NOT a good idea to use. Even the Photoshop engineers will tell you that PSD is no longer the Photoshop "native" file format. It has no advantages and many disadvantages over TIFF. Anybody who thinks PSD is "better" than TIFF is ignorant of the facts. Lightroom for the first beta did NOT support PSD and Hamburg fought tooth and nail to prevent having to accept PSD. He lost , but you still can't import a PSD without Max compat enabled-which basically makes it a TIFF with a PSD extension. TIFF = Good
PSD = Bad If the files are only going to be used by you, save them as PSD files, but if you're going to exchange them with other family members, the TIFF format may be better as it can probably be opened by more different software than can the PSD files.