Dear All,

This is a field I know a bit about. here are some facts:

1. Both TIFF and JPG formats are interchangeable into one another with
photo-editing software.

2. TIFF is a format that is optimised for quality, and is most frequently
used in the professional world. It comes with a compression format (LWZ),
which, when used, may compress the file size down, especially if large
areas of the same colour are in the picture. LWZ is a lossless compression,
meaning that it does not result in loss of quality. But it is not a
particularly effective compression, and TIFF files are usually quite large
(often several MBs), also because they are usually high in resolution.

3. JPG is a format used most frequently on the web. It has a very effective
compression format, invoked when you save a JPG file, and it comes back
asking you how much to compress it by (you can slide the scale to at least
50% of the highest quality setting without noticing any difference on
screen). It produces very small files, which are ideal for sending over the
net or on web sites. JPG compression, however, is a lossy compression, and
each time you save a file in JPG format some, or even a lot, of it's
original quality is lost (that's why you should only ever save a file as
JGP once and keep a copy in another format)

4. Both formats can be sent through E-mail. It follows that a large TIFF
file will be a problem to send if you have only a modem connection, and
your ISP might object to such a large file being sent through their
computers. Some internet software still can't handle files with four-letter
extensions, so in your original has an extension .TIFF, or .JPEG, you must
manually shorten it to three letters.

5. Lastly, don't ever send anyone a TIFF file at high resolution where a
JPG at low resolution will do, and always look at the size of the files you
are sending. If they are larger than 100kB, make sure the recipient can
receive larger files, and doesn't object to receiving them.

Patty Jansen

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