This question came up in the forum this morning, and I wanted to address it here. What you’re reading below is my response to the question; “is it worth scanning my negatives to TIF for manipulating in Aperture, or should I just scan to JPG”? JPEG files are of course a lot smaller then TIF, so for anyone scanning a large library of negatives, this is a pretty important question.
Here is my response. As you’ll see, there are gaps in my knowledge when it comes to scanners, and if you, dear reader, have any additional information, feedback or corrections, please join the conversation in the forum. I’ve closed comments here; I’d like any discussion to happen on the original forum post. Thanks.
TIF vs JPG for scanned negatives
The essential advantage of TIF is twofold; one, it’s uncompressed, and two, it can be higher bit-depth than a JPG. JPEGs can only be 8-bit, whereas a TIF can be saved up to 16-bit (the spec actually allows for 24-bit RGB or 32-bit CMYK).