Life Behind A Lens

Introduction
Once you’ve finished the image that you’re working on, you’ll want to save your image somehow. When you open the Save As dialogue, you’re met with a vast range of different formats and the choices can be somewhat daunting if you aren’t sure what they all are. Sop, this guide aims to address some of those issues and to provide you with suggestions as to the file formats that you are more likely to use as a photographic/digital artist, uploading art to Redbubble.

The List of Formats
When you open the Save As dialogue box, at the bottom there’s a small ‘expand’ square with the words Select File Type (By Extension) next to it. If you click on the little square, a list of some 36 file formats opens up in the window. Here it is;

• GIMP XCF image – The standard GIMP file format.
• Alias Pix image – An image file format that isn’t commonly used (as far as I can tell)
• AutoDesk FLIC Animation – A 2D & 3D Computer Aided Design File Format
• bzip archive – A compressed file format, like a windows zip file
• C source code – A basic programming language..
• C source code header – As above.
• Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine image – A format used in Radiology
• Encapsulated PostScript Image – click here for more info
• Flexible Image Transport System – A file format mainly used to transmit scientific data
• GIF Image – A compressed file format, used a lot on webpages
• GIMP brush – Used for painting in GIMP
• GIMP brush (animated) – As above
• GIMP pattern – A small image used in GIMP to create effects
• gzip archive – An archive file format
• HTML table – HTML coded image format
• JPEG image – Possibly the most commonly used file format
• KISS CEL – Another pallete image file format (similar to a bitmap)
• Microsoft Windows icon – A small file, used on computer desktops etc
• MNG animation – Very similar to a PNG file, but can cater for animations
• PBM image – A ‘lowest common denominator monochrome file format’
• Photoshop image – A PSD file that can be opened in Adobe Photoshop
• PNG image – A lossless compression file format (Good for Redbubble t-shirts!)
• PNM image – A portable bitmap image type
• PostScript document – A basis of PDF files
• PPM image – A portable bitmap image type
• RAW image data – Minimally compressed image format (most digital SLR’s will shoot in this format)
• Silicon Graphics IRIS image – A 3d Graphics system
• SUN Rasterfile image – The native bitmap format of the Sun UNIX platforms
• TarGA image – A Raster Graphics file format
• TIFF image – A reasonably common file format under the control of Adobe
• TIFF image – As above (This appears twice in my list.. Not sure why…)
• Windows BMP image – An image format used in MS Windows
• X BitMap image – A Bitmap image format that contains ‘C’ source code
• X PixMap image – Very similar to an X BitMap
• X window dump – The file format used when you take a screenshot on your computer
• ZSoft PCX image – An old DOS imaging standard

Arrrrrgggghhh! Which ones do I want??!
Panic not, although I’ve listed information about each of the file formats above, we are likely to need only a few of them under normal circumstances for use on Redbubble (or other art sites of a similar nature). Here they are;

• GIMP xcf image
• GIF image
• JPEG image
• PNG image

XCF Files
While you’re working, it’s always a good idea to save your image as an xcf file every 10 to 15 minutes or so (or when you make a major change). There’s nothing worse than spending an hour or two doing something and then having a power outage before you get around to saving it. I generally keep a copy of a finished image as an xcf file for a few weeks as well, just in case I decide that there’s something I want to change.

GIF Files
Gif files are fairly good for banners or other graphics containing text that you’d like to upload to Redbubble. The file size is reasonably small, and any text on your image doesn’t go all fuzzy when you shrink it. (PNG files can also be used for this and look just as good)

JPEG Files
A lot of people use the jpeg file format to upload photographs or other similar art to Redbubble. The file size is reasonable and there isn’t a great deal of information loss. When you are saving as a jpeg file, it’s always worth setting the quality of the image to 100%. I’ve never set it anything below that.

PNG Files
The png format is the only format that can be used to upload as a t-shirt design on Redbubble. It has a lossless compression (which means it looks awesome no matter how much you compress it) and it supports transparency (which is great for t-shirts so that you don’t get a square of colour, as well as your design, on your t-shirts). Many people also upload artwork to RB in the PNG file format, so feel free to experiement and decide what works for you.

The compression settings on PNG files do make a massive difference to the file size. Once finished, I will normally save a png formatted image with a compression level of 1. Setting it to zero just makes the image size huge and it takes me forever to upload it. Setting it to 9 will make the file size really small, but although it has ‘lossless’ compression, it must affect it in some way.

Saving an image
Once you have finished you image (and have been saving it every 10-15 like a good artist in the xcf format), you’ll want to save it in a format that you can use on RB.

To do this, goto File->Save As and a dialogue box will open. You can then select your file type (jpeg or png, for the most part), name your file, and save away.

Saving as either of the above file types will give you an options dialogue (especially if you’ve been using layers). You’ll need to flatten or export the image and then set the compression level. The reason for the export/flattening is that neither jpeg or png files understand what layers are, or how to use them.

So, there you go.. You’re now an expert on the file formats in GIMP. Have fun with your art & design! :))