Working with Images John Frost Director of Education

Liberty Seated Collectors Club Why discuss images? More and more people are taking better photos LSCC members are writing image-rich articles in the Gobrecht Journal and E-Gobrecht – Enhances the final product – Better conveys the points the author is trying to make Articles, documents, websites are using different types of images – Photos of entire coins – High-resolution photos of details, diagnostics, etc., often through a microscope – Graphics (non-photographic) – Text with images – and more! Page 2

Liberty Seated Collectors Club Many types of image formats! Some of the most important ones to know… JPEG– Joint Photographic Experts Group GIF– Graphics Interchange Format TIFF– Tagged Image File Format PNG– Portable Network Graphics They are NOT all created equal They each have their strengths and weaknesses Page 3

Liberty Seated Collectors Club Strengths and weaknesses JPEG format Strengths – Widely-used photo format – 16+ million colors supported – Modest file size via image compression Weaknesses – Loss of detail and quality with each successive manipulation and saving – Introduction of noise in high-contrast images – Terrible for graphics GIF format Strengths – Excellent for graphics and high-contrast areas with no “noise” on manipulation – Small file size without compression Weaknesses – 256 color limit, and usually less – Useless for most photos Page 4

Liberty Seated Collectors Club Strengths and weaknesses TIFF format Strengths – Encoded with all photo or image information – 16+ million colors supported – Manipulates/edits well, without image degradation – Makes excellent working versions of images Weaknesses – Very large file size – Not normally useful as the “final” image published PNG format Strengths – Excellent for graphics and high-contrast areas with no “noise” – Supports millions of colors – Great for small images – Allows “transparency” for overlays Weaknesses – Not universally supported – Not good for large images Page 5

Liberty Seated Collectors Club Example of “noise” introduced by compression within graphics (JPEG) Page 6 JPEG and noise GIF/PNG, no noise

Liberty Seated Collectors Club Creating high-quality photos for publication (e.g., Gobrecht Journal) Most cameras take photos in JPEG format – Some allow “raw” formats, or TIFF If JPEG, save copy of original immediately in TIFF format, before you do anything Do all of your manipulating with the TIFF copy – Cropping, resizing, overlays, text and graphics You can save final copy as JPEG, but keep the TIFF! – You will likely need to make further changes  TIFF Page 7 Original Copy as Resize, rotate, Add graphics Save final Save as JPEG TIFF crop in TIFF in TIFF TIFF JPEG

Liberty Seated Collectors Club Graphics Many articles, presentations, and web pages use a combination of text, photos, and graphics Use GIF or PNG image formats for graphics and text as an image – Small size file, and no loss of detail, and no “noise” Examples: – Arrows and text – Advertisements – Buttons – LSCC Logo! Page 8

Liberty Seated Collectors Club Summary of recommendations Photos: – Convert the original JPEG photo to TIFF format before you do anything – Use the TIFF files to do all of your work, and keep both original and final TIFF files for future changes or redoing from scratch – You can always save final TIFF file as JPEG for actual final use and smaller file size Graphics and Text: – GIF or PNG format for quality, display speed, and small file size – These can be resized and worked on at will with no loss of quality A good quality article will make copious use of photos Use the right combination of image file formats Page 9

Liberty Seated Collectors Club In case you didn’t get this… Photos: – TIFF, TIFF, TIFF – Did I say “TIFF”? Graphics and Text: – GIF – PNG Page 10

Thank you for your time!