Since all of us probably have many JPEG pictures to go with our Legacy database, your post probably grabbed the attention of quite a few people.
Unfortunately you are mistaking a "copy" with doing a "save as". When you make a copy of a JPEG image using Windows Explorer, you get exactly that: the same exact image with no loss in quality. They are bit-for-bit identical. Even if you just change the filename, it is still the same exact image. Make a copy 100 times over and the last one is identical to the first one. On the other hand, if you load a JPEG image into any photo program, make the most minor change, and then change the JPEG compression factor from what the original image as you do a "Save As", then yes, there will be some loss of data. You can never get back what was there before. Now here is the most important part: even if you resave the image a dozen times over again, the human eye will never see any loss of image quality (assuming the compression factors were all reasonably the same as the original). This concept has bounced around the Internet for years now and on some photography forums tests were done by resaving an image over 100 times. The result was that the vast majority of users could not tell the resaved image from the original. So don't be afraid to make a copy of an image over and over again. And with the vast amount of cheap hard drive space available now, keep your compression factors down low (large file size) and you'll never see any differences even if you have to edit the picture a dozen times. More info at: http://photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00695v Brian in CA > -----Original Message----- > From: Dawn Del Guercio [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 12:20 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Re: Family Group Pictures > > Hi there, > I was reading this and wanted to be sure to mention... Does everyone > know the difference between Jpgs and other photo files and the > importance of saving in a "non-compressed" format? > I knew this already but it was reiterated through the Legacy CD (set > 2) about multimedia files and Legacy. > > > > I have never used FotoTagger but it sounded interesting so I just > > downloaded it a few minutes ago, was able to attach a tag to a > picture > > straight away, saved the picture, attached it in Legacy ... and no > tag. > > If this was a jpg photo that you uploaded then resaved, that file will > have degenerated a bit through that save. Do it too many times and you > really start losing the quality of the original file- like, a Geoff > Rasmussen stated so well- if you took an original document and then > made a copy, and then a copy of the copy, an so on.. the image > disintegrates after so many generations. > > Just thought I'd throw that in. > Dawn D. in NJ > Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
