Is this the best way to save photos scanned in Canon 8800F?

[Dennis S]

Using Photshop Elements 4, I'm saving them as JPEGs, best quality (#12) and 2.0 MB, and Baseline Optimized.

Is there a better way?

[AlphaDog]

The format you choose for the original scan isn't as important as the format in which you edit. JPEG is a lossy format, meaning the image will degrade with each resave. Pay more attention to the format they're in when editing them.

Personally, I always archive a copy of each original scan and work only on copies. If I want to edit an image, I duplicate the original and work in either TIFF or PSD. Both of those are lossless and both support layers. Archiving the original means you always have a fresh copy available.

Archiving at maximum quality JPEG is fine. I have the storage space, so I save my originals as TIFFs.

[deckeda]

[quote AlphaDog] I have the storage space, so I save my originals as TIFFs.
... which means the the format you choose for the original scan IS important. If you scan instead as JPEG you've already thrown away data you can't recover.

[AlphaDog]

[quote deckeda][quote AlphaDog] I have the storage space, so I save my originals as TIFFs.
... which means the the format you choose for the original scan IS important. If you scan instead as JPEG you've already thrown away data you can't recover.
Good point. I haven't ever done any scans in JPEG, so I forgot that important detail you pointed out. Thanks!

[loveshine]

You didn't mention the dpi. This is as important as the file format you choose. For my personal scanning of family photos, I will not go below 600 dpi.

If you are scanning prints, you will not see any difference between a TIFF and a JPEG at an 80%(that would be about a "Best #10") quality or above setting. In fact you can have a smaller file size scanning at a higher dpi with JPEG and it will give you an original that has for all practical purposes all of your important detail information. When you open up this high dpi JPEG you can then resize it for other specific purposes as AlphaDog mentioned. I will the resave these work(ing) files as TIFF or Photoshop layer files because I will continue re-saving every 10 to 20 minutes of work I am doing.
I often deliver JPEGs via the web, once all of my work is done on multi layered huge photoshop files. My clients will then convert my JPEG files back to TIFF to work on them some more if need be.
In other words 1 or 2 generations of high quality, high dpi JPEGs look great.
If you are talking about saving an original from a high end digital camera, that's a different story because there is only one professional option and that is shooting and saving RAW files because they contains much more information (wider dynamic range) than a print and they are already less compressed than a TIFF. I have not worked with Adobe's universal raw DNG format but it might be worth looking into if you want the most versatile archival format for your digital originals.

http://www.adobe.com/products/dng

The bottom line is that you should do a test and see for your self what the results look like on the highest detailed most color diverse image you have.

[fhimage]

i think there is a better way to save scanned image as other image formats. please go through the web for more.