Photo images are stored in a variety of file formats, many of which are developed for specific applications. MGI PhotoSuite II supports a number of popular image file formats as shown in the table below. Some formats can only be opened in MGI PhotoSuite II while others can be both opened and saved.

File Format

Extension

Open

Save

Joint Photographic Experts Group

(.jpg - .jpe - .jpeg)

Portable Network Graphic

 (.png)

Windows Bitmap

 (.bmp - .rle)

FPX

(.fpx)

Tagged Image File Format

(.tif)

CompuServe Graphic Interchange Format

(.gif)

Gem Image

 (.img)

PC Paintbrush

(.pcx)

STiNG

(.stn)

Truevision Targa

(.tga)

Sun Raster

(.ras)

Seattle Filmworks

(.sfw)

Konica

(.kqp)

Encapsulated Postscript

(.eps - .epsi)

Floppy Shot

(.pic)

Kodak PhotoCD

(.pcd)

Adobe PhotoShop (flattened PSD files)

(.psd)

 Windows Metafile

(.wmf - .emf)

Joint Photographic Experts Group (.jpg - .jpe - .jpeg)

This file format uses several extensions, but all are commonly known as JPEG files. The compression scheme for these files reduces the photo image file size by selectively reducing detail and transforming the image into a data format more suited for compression. As a result, photos with fewer details compress extremely well, while those with a higher degree of random detail may suffer in image quality.

JPEG is an excellent choice if you plan to upload photos onto the Internet. It is not the best format to use, however, if you plan to edit the photo, because each time you resave the photo, some picture degradation will occur. This is referred to as “lossy” compression, where some image information is lost in the interest of better compression. For editing purposes, save the image in a format like TIFF or BMP as you work, and then save the final image in JPG format.

Note: When saving images in JPEG format, you must balance the level of compression with the degree of image degradation. Image quality settings range from 0-10, where 0 specifies the highest compression, and 10 specifies the lowest compression. In other words, lower values will give you better compression, but with a marked loss of image quality. An image quality setting of 8-10 will result in visually lossless compression. JPEG images are saved at the 16.7 million color depth only. MGI PhotoSuite II does not support all types JPEGs.

Portable Network Graphic (.png)

The PNG format was developed as an alternative to the GIF format and, like GIF and JPEG, is used for displaying images on the World Wide Web and other online services. PNG preserves all color information and alpha channels in an image and uses a lossless compression scheme to reduce file size.

Windows Bitmap (.bmp)

Windows Bitmap is the standard file format used by Microsoft Windows. They are either in 2, 16, 256, or 16 million colors. Most Windows Bitmap files are not compressed. It is possible to save 16 and 256 color images in a compressed format (See Run-Length Encoded below) but some applications (notably Windows Paintbrush) are not able to read the compressed files. This format preserves the quality and detail of the images well even after many edit and save sessions.

The default file extension for Windows Bitmap files is “.BMP”. Occasionally you may see bitmap files with the extension “.DIB" and ".RLE”.

Windows Run-Length Encoded (.rle)

Windows Run-Length Encoded is a variation of the BMP file format. It features modest image compression, so can therefore have a smaller file size depending on the photo. This type of file is either in 16 or 256 colors. It has two primary uses under Windows — as wallpaper and logo screens.

FPX (.fpx)

FPX is a Kodak image file format. Each file can contain copies of the image at a number of resolutions. This allows an application to process high-quality printouts from the highest resolution image, and display lower resolution copies onscreen for a better screen refresh rate.

The image at each resolution is further divided into tiles to enable processing in batches while accessing, displaying, or printing. Note that FPX uses JPEG compression, which means that some picture degradation will take place if the file is saved a number of times in this format. For editing purposes, use a format like TIF or BMP before saving to FPX. MGI PhotoSuite II is well suited to creating original FPX files from your scanner or digital camera originals.

Tagged Image File Format (.tif)

The TIFF format was developed as a portable method of storing bitmap images. MGI PhotoSuite II supports both the 5.0 and 6.0 specifications for TIFF files. TIFF files come in monochrome, 16-color, 256-color, 16-color grayscale, 256-color grayscale, and 16.7 million-color (24-bit) varieties. MGI PhotoSuite II does not support all TIFF types, notably JPG compressed TIFFs.

CompuServe Graphic Interchange Format (.gif)

The GIF file format was developed by CompuServe Inc. for use on their on-line service. GIF files are color-mapped files that can have anywhere from 2 to 256 colors. MGI PhotoSuite II opens both the 87a and 89a versions of the GIF standard. However, files are saved according to the 87a version only. GIF files are always compressed, and offer an efficient way of storing large images. As such, GIF files are well-suited for use on the Internet.

Gem Image (.img)

The Digital Research Gem environment defines a bit-image file format usually known as IMG after the conventional filename extension. One-bit and 8-bit grayscale files can be opened in MGI PhotoSuite II. The program can not open IMG files saved by Corel Ventura.

PC Paintbrush (.pcx)

PCX files were originally developed for Z-Soft’s PC Paintbrush package. These files come in monochrome, 16 color, 256 color, and true color (24-bit) varieties. PCX files are compressed using a method that offers a modest degree of compression compared to other compression formats.

STiNG (.stn)

The STiNG file format was developed by Iterated Systems to provide resolution-on-demand images. The image is first captured at one medium resolution, and then converted to STiNG format. Image resolution can be specified at the time of output. MGI PhotoSuite II does not support LabColor, CMYK, Duotones, and Multicolor STiNG files.

Truevision Targa (.tga)

The Truevision Targa format was originally developed by Truevision Inc. for use with their line of graphic display cards. The Targa format is used by several high-end paint and CAD programs. Color resolutions range from 256 color, (16-bit) color, 24-bit true color, and 32-bit true color formats. The 32-bit Targa format contains 24 bits of color data as well as 8 bits of transparency (overlay) data. MGI PhotoSuite II extracts the color data from 32-bit Targa files but ignores the transparency data. Targa images exist in both compressed and uncompressed formats.

Sun Raster (.ras)

Sun Raster is a simple raster format for images used on Sun workstations. There are now several raster file versions, but the two most common ones are the original and a slightly compressed version using run-length encoding.

Images can be one bit deep for monochrome bitmaps, with or without a color map. They can be eight bits deep for grayscale or color-mapped images. They can be 24 or 32 (with the high 8 bits ignored) bits deep for either direct color or color-mapped images.

Seattle Filmworks (.sfw)

The SFW file format was developed by Seattle FilmWorks. SFW files come in monochrome, 16-color, 256-color, 16-color grayscale, 256-color grayscale, and 16.7 million-color (24-bit) varieties.

Konica Quality Pictures (.kqp)

Konica Quality Pictures is a proprietary file format developed by Konica Photo Imaging for their online photo service. KQP files come in monochrome, 16-color, 256-color, 16-color grayscale, 256-color grayscale, and 16.7 million-color (24-bit) varieties.

Encapsulated Postscript (.eps)

These files are Postscript descriptions of a single page designed to be incorporated into a larger Postscript document without modification. They are distinguished from regular PostScript files by the inclusion of certain comment fields, the exclusion of certain operators, and the avoidance of certain actions that would affect the larger document. EPS is the variant of PostScript designed to support graphics exchange.

MGI PhotoSuite II only opens EPS files that have an Adobe header. Only the Bitmap component is opened; the vector component is ignored. Adobe Illustrator files are not supported.

Floppy Shot (.pic)

The PIC format is especially effective at compressing images that contain large areas of solid color. This compression can be dramatic for alpha channels, which often consist of large areas of white and black.

Kodak Photo CD (.pcd)

The Photo CD format is a proprietary format developed by Eastman Kodak to store digitized photographic images on CD-ROM disks. These images are always converted to true color (24-bit) images when loaded into MGI PhotoSuite II. Photo CD CD-ROM disks, produced according to Kodak specifications, include one or more Photo CD images as well as an overview file containing small “thumbnail” versions of each image on the disk. The Photo CD image files always reside in a directory named d:\PHOTO_CD\IMAGES on a Photo CD disk.

Note: MGI PhotoSuite II does not save images in Photo CD file format. If you wish to save an image you have loaded from a Photo CD file, we suggest that you choose either the JPEG or TIFF file format.

Each Photo CD file contains a number of scans of the same image at a number of different resolutions. MGI PhotoSuite II supports the following Photo CD resolutions: 96x64 pixels, 192x128 pixels, 384x256 pixels, 768x512 pixels, 1536x1024 pixels and 3072x2048 pixels.

Adobe PhotoShop (.psd)

PSD is the native bitmap file format of the Adobe Photoshop graphical editing application. Only PSD files that do not have layers (i.e; flattened images) can be opened. Duotone and CMYK files cannot be opened.

Windows Metafile (.wmf, .emf)

This Windows Metafile format was initially intended as a graphical macroinstruction since it stores a list of Microsoft Windows graphical function calls. However, it turns out that it is more generally used as a general image-interchange format among Windows applications.

With Windows 95 came a whole new set of graphical features, addressing many of the problems and failings of the original WMF format. The Enhanced Metafile format is the enhanced version of the Windows Metafile format. New features in EMF include:

Unfortunately, because the EMF format is tightly integrated with Windows 95, it cannot be used with earlier versions of Windows. Not all EMF features are supported by MGI PhotoSuite II. WMF and EMF files are specific to an operating system, and as such, they may not be supported if they were created in Windows 98 or Windows NT 5.0.

MGI PhotoSuite 1.0/8.0 Album File (.ctf)

The CTF format was developed by MGI for earlier versions of PhotoSuite as a means to store thumbnails for cataloging images and multimedia files.

MGI PhotoSuite II Album File (.pza)

The PZA format was developed by MGI as a means to store MGI PhotoSuite II album files.

MGI PhotoSuite II Project File (.pzp)

The PZP format was developed by MGI as a means to store MGI PhotoSuite II project files.

MGI PhotoSuite II Slide Show File (.pzs)

The PZS format was developed by MGI as a means to store MGI PhotoSuite II slide show files.