photoshop PSD vs. PNG for images

slambubba wrote on 7/4/2003, 8:04 PM
in the v4 manual, it says that PNG is the best format for images. the reasons are obvious why it is better than JPG. but what about photoshop PSD files? i thought the manual says they must be flattened but my tests show layered images work fine. also, all transparency in my PSD seems to work fine in vegas. if i can leave all my images as PSD then that would save me an extra step in saving them as PNG. any reasons not to use PSD?

thanks.

Comments

FuTz wrote on 7/4/2003, 9:35 PM

Vegas should be optimized for PNG files, but I read somewhere on this forum that somebody got better results in certain conditions (IF my rememberance is good...) with PSD files. With rendering times maybe with a given configuration?
You could do a Search with keywords PNG+PSD cause I'm pretty shure I read that...
Otherwise, I usually go "by the book" and use PNG files and it works well for my needs so far (I render pictures in a higher resolution if I zoom into them with Pan/Crop).

To get back to your question though, I don't know about the reasons to use or not use these formats.
Sorry.
!!! 8|
mchaboud wrote on 7/5/2003, 9:55 PM
Well, once the image is loaded into memory, it should remain bufferred, so you shouldn't notice a major speed penalty with either PNG or PSD for rendering.

Keep this one floating around the top and I'm sure that SonicEPM will take a look at it at the start of the week and get back to you with a quick answer.

simojo wrote on 7/6/2003, 12:09 PM
Two points, from Richard Harrington's excellent book "Photoshop for Non-Linear Editors":
1) If you have a ten-layer PSD file, you don't want it to occupy ten video tracks in Vegas. Better to flatten it in this case.
2) Same book: Dave Hill of SF stated that all PS features are supported in Vegas, except multiple alpha channels.
FuTz wrote on 7/6/2003, 3:07 PM

Y0ou mean, if I get a PSD file with ten layers, I will actually get those layers separated on ten different tracks in Vegas? Wow! That could be usefull..! (masking being one example)
Am I getting it right?
SonyEPM wrote on 7/7/2003, 9:28 AM
"if I get a PSD file with ten layers, I will actually get those layers separated on ten different tracks in Vegas"

No, this is not the case. PSD files will appear in Vegas as if all the layers were flattened into one, plus you'll get access to the alpha channel if present. The above issue aside, PSD or PNG can both be used in Vegas, your choice.
slambubba wrote on 7/7/2003, 9:33 AM
cool! sounds like PSD works just as well as PNG so that will save me an extra step.