jpg vs tif

[jennyja]

This isn't really a digital camera question, but didn't know where else to go. I'm scanning in some good quality photos...they're 4x6. I'm told its better to use tif, but the files are so big. Is tif at 300 dpi better than a jpg at 300 dpi. Should I do more dpi? Does anyone have recommendations? I'm doing this mainly so I have them permanently - but if I reprint, I'm sure it'd be at the 4x6.
Thanks

[kgosden]

"I'm told its better to use tif, but the files are so big. Is tif at 300 dpi better than a jpg at 300 dpi. Should I do more dpi?"

TIF is a lossless format, while JPG is a lossy format. But if you select a high enough quality setting for your JPG's then the difference is minimal. The qualtity I am speaking of here is not resolution it is the compression level applied to the image data when saving. Just as a digital camera generally has several 'quality' settings, so does nearly every image editing package. In Photoshop you select a quality setting for your JPG files wtih 12 being the highest. At a setting of 10 there is very little quality loss and still a decent amount of compression.

As for DPI if you are certain that you will not exceed the size of the original in future reprints then I would stick to 300dpi. Even at that resolution you will likely be able to go up one size; 4x6 to 5x7, etc. Now this is only true if you are scanning prints and not negatives or slides in those cases go for the maximum optical resolution of your scanner.

[jennyja]

Thanks for the information......maybe I'll just do 300 dpi tif and call it good. My scanner (HP Precision Scan LTX) doesn't appear to have a compression setting - not that I could find. In settings, you can choose "Sharpen Detail in Photos", "Descreen printed originals" or "Use Maximum Bit Depth." It defaults to the first one, but you can pick more than one.