File saving for the future, PSD or TIFF?

[Jad]

Now that Adobe has come out with Creative Cloud as the only option to use PS in the future, I am starting to wonder if I should start saving my new files as unflatten TIFF and not as PSD files. It is a new concern seeing a PSD file is strictly a formatted to work on Adobe products. I currently use CS5 and it is doubtful I will subscribe to new C.C. What are your thoughts?

 

[Light Guru]

PSD file is strictly a formatted to work on Adobe products.

Umm where did you hear that. Lots of other programs can read PSD files. Some even let you save as a PSD file.

 

[Derrel]

Adobe's new Creative Extortion model has caused their customers to worry about things like file type "lock-in", and about the very ability to open and access their files...I have not yet heard about any proprietary .PSD files....but then again...a .PSD is a a "Photoshop Document" file type, and there have been multiple permutations of that file type. Adobe could pull a fast one at any time--they have just proven that to the world this month.

To somebody who has not been involved in digital imaging or computing for very long, the idea of dead file formats and dead-end software and so on might not seem like a real issue...but the past is littered with the bones of dead formats and file types and dead-end software...so, it now makes more sense than it has in a long time to start worrying about being "locked-in" and/or "locked out" of ones own files, by tying them to a specific software manufacturer's whims and aspirations of easy money.

Thom Hogan's latest column deals with this same exact issue...re-evaluating one's relationship with Adobe and its software, as well as the history of dead-end file formats and software.

 

[OLaA]

You will still be able to access your current software... so if the issue ever came up you could open with your current PS edition and re-save the file. I don't think there is any real reason to worry..

Also for users like myself that stay current with Adobe releases anyway it actually ends up being cheaper.

 

[Jad]

PSD file is strictly a formatted to work on Adobe products.

Umm where did you hear that. Lots of other programs can read PSD files. Some even let you save as a PSD file.

I have to think that PSD is an Adobe file type and that would make it their proprietary property to change and adapt with their future software. My current CS5 will not be worth much in five years and I don't plan on paying a monthly subscription to Adobe for the rest of my life. I save all of my PSD files unflatten so I can edit them in the future. You say there are numerous programs that can read PSD but can they edit the file?

 

[OLaA]

GIMP is a free program that can open and edit PSD files. There are some limitations depending on what was done to certain layers. I find that it's more of an issue with graphic design work than photos though (layer effects etc).

 

[Derrel]

Check out Thom Hogan's Nikon Camera, DSLR, Lens, Flash, and Book site for the conclkusion of this, as well as more, stories on the upcoming "Creative Cloud" model Adobe is trying to ram up users' behinds...

"The Future's So Dim I Have to Take Off My ShadesMay 13, 2013 (commentary)--One problem for Adobe is that the more people think deeply about the change to the Creative Suite with the (faux) cloud offering, the more they discover some substantive underlying issues.

Let's just say for a moment that I'm at a University and teaching future media students (this isn't a moot point for me, as I've been approached several times to be an adjunct professor lately). What software do you teach and train students on?

The file lock-in potential on products such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, and After Effects now becomes a tangible issue in answering that question. You'd essentially be committing your students to a life of having to pay software fees to access their work. Not a good thing, and not really a decision you can morally justify easily. You do want to train students in products they're likely to encounter in the field, but you don't want to promote lock-in to any particular brand, let alone suggest that, once trained, you'll have to pay a monthly tithe to continue to use those skills. That's especially true if there are alternatives." ----end quoted passage from THom Hogan's May 13 comments.

 

[OLaA]

Check out Thom Hogan's Nikon Camera, DSLR, Lens, Flash, and Book site for the conclkusion of this, as well as more, stories on the upcoming "Creative Cloud" model Adobe is trying to ram up users' behinds...

"The Future's So Dim I Have to Take Off My ShadesMay 13, 2013 (commentary)--One problem for Adobe is that the more people think deeply about the change to the Creative Suite with the (faux) cloud offering, the more they discover some substantive underlying issues.

Let's just say for a moment that I'm at a University and teaching future media students (this isn't a moot point for me, as I've been approached several times to be an adjunct professor lately). What software do you teach and train students on?

The file lock-in potential on products such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, and After Effects now becomes a tangible issue in answering that question. You'd essentially be committing your students to a life of having to pay software fees to access their work. Not a good thing, and not really a decision you can morally justify easily. You do want to train students in products they're likely to encounter in the field, but you don't want to promote lock-in to any particular brand, let alone suggest that, once trained, you'll have to pay a monthly tithe to continue to use those skills. That's especially true if there are alternatives." ----end quoted passage from THom Hogan's May 13 comments.

I'm not trying to start a debate with you Derrel as there is an argument to be made. I just don't see it as a big deal. People get updates to frequently used software earlier. For serious users the package turns out to be cheaper. Presumably if their in school learning to use these type of tools they're looking to make a occupation out of it which means two things.

A. They get employed and their employer enlists team services where it is free for them to use.

B. They start their own business and have the sense to build it in to their cost into their cost of doing business, as everyone SHOULD be doing already.

 

[Jad]

GIMP is a free program that can open and edit PSD files. There are some limitations depending on what was done to certain layers. I find that it's more of an issue with graphic design work than photos though (layer effects etc).

Thanks, I will certainly check it out, but it may not be a powerful editing software that I enjoyed with PS.

 

[Derrel]

Category:Computer file formats - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

History has a little bit to say about companies and file formats...

Allowing adobe to hold you hostage for decades on end is a real potential issue that Thom Hogan has been writing about now for a week or so.

I'd look up some of the stuff from the distant past, but my old Amiga with the 8-inch floppy drive is not working quite right today...

8-inch-floppy-disks.jpg

 

[OLaA]

Category:Computer file formats - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

History has a little bit to say about companies and file formats...

Allowing adobe to hold you hostage for decades on end is a real potential issue that Thom Hogan has been writing about now for a week or so.

I'd look up some of the stuff from the distant past, but my old Amiga with the 8-inch floppy drive is not working quite right today...

8-inch-floppy-disks.jpg

Ill look into the links you shared. Interesting topic regardless.

 

[SCraig]

You will still be able to access your current software... so if the issue ever came up you could open with your current PS edition and re-save the file. I don't think there is any real reason to worry..

There are no guarantees of that either. If you are using Windows the past is also littered with software that will no longer run on the current Windows platform. How long will it be before the OS has changed enough that CS5 will no longer run? One year? Five years? Who is to say.

For that matter how long will it be until the media you have stored them on is no longer readable? CD and DVD formats are subject to change over time. Tape formats are constantly changing. Hard drive interfaces make changes over time as well. I have hundreds of old 3-1/2" and 5-1/4" diskettes in my closet with nothing at all to read them with. I have a 3-1/2" diskette drive, however my current computer doesn't even have an IDE connection on the motherboard, all of them are SATA-3 now.

At work I have dozens of old projects archived on DVD. At some point in the future, should we ever have to revive one of them, it's entirely possible we'll have to find an old computer with an antique DVD drive to be able to read them. When I left a company about 20 years ago I left them with hundreds of archived projects on 8mm tape cartridges and 9-track tapes. Both of those formats tended to die a few years later so I have no clue what they did. If they were smart someone moved them to a format they could use but then they were never accused of forward thinking either.

The bottom line is that for many people it truly IS, or may become, a valid problem with no realistic answer. We can't predict the future now any more than we could 10 or 20 years ago.

 

[OLaA]

You will still be able to access your current software... so if the issue ever came up you could open with your current PS edition and re-save the file. I don't think there is any real reason to worry..

There are no guarantees of that either. If you are using Windows the past is also littered with software that will no longer run on the current Windows platform. How long will it be before the OS has changed enough that CS5 will no longer run? One year? Five years? Who is to say.

For that matter how long will it be until the media you have stored them on is no longer readable? CD and DVD formats are subject to change over time. Tape formats are constantly changing. Hard drive interfaces make changes over time as well. I have hundreds of old 3-1/2" and 5-1/4" diskettes in my closet with nothing at all to read them with. I have a 3-1/2" diskette drive, however my current computer doesn't even have an IDE connection on the motherboard, all of them are SATA-3 now.

At work I have dozens of old projects archived on DVD. At some point in the future, should we ever have to revive one of them, it's entirely possible we'll have to find an old computer with an antique DVD drive to be able to read them. When I left a company about 20 years ago I left them with hundreds of archived projects on 8mm tape cartridges and 9-track tapes. Both of those formats tended to die a few years later so I have no clue what they did. If they were smart someone moved them to a format they could use but then they were never accused of forward thinking either.

The bottom line is that for many people it truly IS, or may become, a valid problem with no realistic answer. We can't predict the future now any more than we could 10 or 20 years ago.

My argument is not that it may or may not become a problem. I was stating that there's no reason to rush out and convert everything right away. It's true if they stop supporting older releases of adobe it may not be supported on future OS builds. But that is something YOU as a user have to choose to do. Before you update your OS you can make sure if your software will be compatible. There is no expiration date on your current software other than your own need to move on. If that time every comes you are free to open your files with current software and export as you see fit. At the end of the day PSD files are a propitiatory software. Adobe has made the change so you're either with it, or you are not. If not there are other programs to be had, and some even being free. If you totally can't live without adobe in your work flow then pay for it, or continue to use the build that you have now.

To clarify I'm not saying what Adobe is doing is right or wrong. In my specific case it actually benefits me, but that doesn't mean that I can't see it from other peoples perspectives. What I am trying to say is that the change has been made so it is what it is. But there is no reason to rush out to convert files or panic.

 

[usayit]

Use DNG....

Now argue on...

 

[usayit]

PS> I work in a business concerned with long period of archiving files. You'd be sorely mistaken if you assume that software updates from a proprietary format will always be around to recover your data.