Create Other Image Format in Photoshop

The formats I describe in previous sections are ones you’ll use 99 percent of the time, but here’s a brief description of some of the others, just in case you’re curious:

-->Photoshop DCS 1.0 and 2.0: A version of EPS, this format divides your CMYK or Multichannel image into Desktop Color Separations (DCS). DCS 2.0 supports spot and alpha channels. It requires a PostScript printer to print.

-->EPS Pict Preview/EPS TIFF Preview: These EPS formats are created in applications, such as Quark Xpress, which create previews but aren’t directly supported by Photoshop. However, you can open and edit these files.

-->PICT Resource: This format, Macintosh Picture Resource, is used for Mac start-up screens. You can use images that are in RGB (with a single alpha channel), Indexed Color, Grayscale, or Bitmap (without alpha channels) modes.

-->PCX: This is the native format for PC Paintbrush. This format supports RGB, Indexed Color, Grayscale, and Bitmap color modes. It doesn’t support alpha channels. Images can have a bit depth of 1, 4, 8, or 24, and RLE compression is supported.

-->Acrobat TouchUp Image: Editing an image in Adobe Acrobat with the TouchUp tool allows the file to be opened in Photoshop. That image is then saved in this file format, which uses a .pdf extension. You can also open Adobe TouchUp Images in Photoshop. Mac OS X screenshots are also saved in this format by default.

-->PhotoCD: This Kodak file format allows a single file to contain five different resolutions that you can open.

-->PixelPaint: This format is an early file format native to Apple’s first color paint program.

-->PNG: A newer format for Web graphics, PNG (Portable Network Graphics) offers good lossless compression, transparency, and 24-bit color. PNG supports RGB, Indexed Color, Grayscale, and Bitmap image modes.

-->Pixar: This is the format used for Pixar workstations, which are high-end, 3-D-modeling computers. You can use RGB or grayscale images with a single alpha channel.

-->Filmstrip: This format is used for animation and digital video.
-->IFF Format: The IFF (Interchange File Format) is a general storage format that can store different types of data, such as image, sound, music, video, and textual information. The popular modeling program Maya uses the IFF format.

-->MacPaint: This oldie but goodie is the native file format for Apple’s early black-andwhite paint program.

-->Generic PDF: Generic PDFs are created in programs such as Adobe Acrobat and Illustrator and can contain multiple pages or images. When you open a Generic PDF with multiple pages, you can specify which page you wish to open. If you open a Generic PDF with vector graphics, Photoshop rasterizes the image.

-->Generic EPS: When you open a vector graphic, Photoshop rasterizes the graphic as a Generic EPS. Generic EPS can also be created in other non-Adobe imaging, drawing, and layout programs.

-->QuickTime Movie (ImageReady): This cross-platform format is used mainly for digital video. ImageReady enables you to open and save animations as .mov files. Note that Windows users must have QuickTime installed in order to have this format listed on their File of Type pop-up menu.

-->Macromedia Flash (SWF) (ImageReady): The Flash file format is used for saving streaming animations, which are commonly integrated in Web sites. This format allows you to embed other file formats such as JPEG.

-->WBMP: This format, Wireless Bitmap, is used for images that will appear on mobile devices such as cell phones and PDAs. WBMP supports only 1-bit color (black or white).

-->Portable Bitmap (PBM): This 1-bit, monochrome file format is mainly for Unix platforms as an intermediate file format used in graphic conversions.

-->Scitex CT: This format, Scitex Continuous Tone, is designed for Scitex prepress software and hardware.

-->SGI RGB: The high-end Silicon Graphics computer platform uses this format for RGB and Grayscale images. Files can be recognized by their .sgi, .rgb, or .bw file extensions.

-->Targa: Developed by TrueVision for its video boards, Targa is used to capture still frames from video on PCs. This format supports RGB, Indexed Color, and Grayscale images, the latter two without alpha channels.

-->Raw: This format is used to exchange files between PCs and Macs and mainframe computers. It is often used to save images created by scientific applications. Be aware that this format sacrifices colors and other image data.

-->Alias PIX, Wavefront RLA, Electric Image, and Soft Image: These are extremely highend formats used for 3-D, animation, and special-effect graphics.

-->Cineon: Kodak developed this high-end file format. Cineon files have 10 bits per channel and are used in the film industry for electronic compositing and enhancement.

-->Photoshop 2.0: Use this format if you know someone living in an ice cave in Siberia who is still using Photoshop 2. This format is Mac only.