Supported File Formats

The following types of file can be created in Luminar.

• JPEG (.jpg). The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format is most often used to display continuous-tone images (such as photos) on the Internet. Most digital cameras use JPEG because it provides excellent compression; the maximum setting provides comparable image quality to much larger file formats like TIFF. Occasionally, the print industry (especially newspapers) will use JPEGs. JPEG is a lossy compression, which means that some data is discarded during compression of the image. JPEGs should not be used as an archive or production file format. You should generally only save JPEG files once because re-saving continues to discard data and lower image quality. If you have acquired an image as a JPEG in your camera, be sure to save the edited document as a native Luminar file.
• PNG (.png). The Portable Network Graphics format provides lossless compression. It is increasingly common on the Internet, as most web browsers support it. The PNG format was created to be a patent-free alternative to GIF. Its major advantage is the PNG-24 file, which allows for 24-bit images (8 bits per channel) and embedded transparency. It is technically superior to GIF.
• TIFF (.tif). The Tagged-Image File Format is one of the most common and flexible formats available. It is widely used to exchange files between applications and computer platforms, and has a long legacy of compatibility.  Additionally, TIFF is one of the formats to work in a bit depth of 8 or 16 bits per channel. 
• JPEG 2000 (.jp2). The JPEG 2000 format is an update released in the year 2000 from the Joint Photographic Experts Group committee.  Its intent was to replace the original JPEG format.  It uses a newer wavelet-based method of image compression which is more efficient.
• Photoshop (.psd). The Photoshop format is a common format used in the computer graphics industry.  Skylum cannot write a layered file, but can export a file that can be opened by Adobe Photoshop and other software packages which support the format.
• PDF (.pdf). The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format invented by Adobe and was intended to be an extension of PostScript. A PDF can be viewed on virtually every operating system and portable media player or phone. The PDF is an open standard, which means that the computer industry is able to create applications that can read or write PDFs without paying Adobe additional fees. This openness led to the quick adoption of PDF, and it is utilized online extensively.