Photoshop JPEG export: Save As vs Save for Web, and what should you keep for printing?
Asked 3/21/2012
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2 answers
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In Photoshop, JPEGs can be exported using both Save As and Save for Web. Save for Web seems to offer extra options like converting to sRGB, stripping metadata, and previewing quality/file size, and in some cases its output appears better.
What are the practical differences between these two methods, and when should each be used? Also, after editing, what file format should you keep for future printing: a JPEG export, or the original Photoshop document?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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Save for Web gives you finer control and more options. I don't know of any advantage to using Save As. The quality between the two shouldn't be much different if used consistently - I would find it hard to believe that Adobe would have two completely different sets of code to create JPGs -surely a lot of the routines are shared.
If you've done substantial editing, you would want to keep a PSD file with your edits, but for printing you'll want to do resizing and cropping, final sharpening then output as JPG or TIF for printing or for the web.
Originally by user4191. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user4191
14y ago
0
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Use Save for Web when the image is intended for online use. It gives more control over web-specific settings such as sRGB conversion, metadata stripping, and quality/file size preview, and it can help you quickly optimize JPEG/GIF/PNG output.
Use Save As when you simply want to save to another file format without those web-oriented options. The JPEG quality itself should not be dramatically different if equivalent settings are used.
For edited work, keep your PSD (or layered master file) if you’ve done meaningful retouching or adjustments. That preserves layers and editability for future changes.
For printing, typically make a final output file after any resizing, cropping, and output sharpening, then export as JPEG or TIFF depending on the printer/lab requirements. JPEG is commonly fine; TIFF is also used when you want a high-quality print file format.
In short:
- Web: Save for Web
- Archive/edit later: keep the PSD
- Print delivery: export a final JPEG or TIFF
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