Chapter 2: Choosing Color Modes and File Formats
In This Chapter
Choosing the right color mode
Switching a file’s color mode
Focusing on file formats
In addition to choosing a size and resolution (discussed in Book II, Chapter 1), you need to decide on a color mode and file format for your image. Usually, you base this decision on the final use for the image. Are you importing it into a page-layout program for offset printing? Posting it on a web page? Using it for a newspaper article?
When you know an image’s final destination, you can make intelligent choices about which color mode and file format are best. This chapter gives you some background information to help you make those choices so that you don’t end up having to do extra work, spend extra time, or waste extra money.
Selecting a Color Mode
Every file has a color mode, also called an image mode or just plain mode. To determine the color mode of an image, look in the title bar of the image window or choose Image⇒Mode. Color modes define the color values used to display the image. Photoshop offers eight modes and enables you to convert images from one mode to another. The color mode you choose for a particular image depends ...
