File Formats, Continued
Saving file
formats
American
Standard Code
for Information
Interchange
(ASCII)
Encapsulated
postscript file
formats (EPS
or EPSF)
Tag Image File
Format (TIF or
TIFF)
Raster image
file format (RIF
or RIFF)
The format graphics are saved in affects the resolution quality of the final
product. Files saved in low-resolution do not produce professional quality
graphics. Files saved in high-resolution file formats require software
program compatibility to maintain high resolution or increase to very high
resolution. Common file formats are the American Standard Code for
Information Interchange (ASCII), the encapsulated postscript file format (EPS
or EPSF), the tag image file format (TIFF), the raster image file format
(RIFF), and the graphic images format (GIF). There are some file formats
that are platform specific such as Amiga ILF/ILBN and Macpaint.
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is a
generic text-only format without special coding for attributes such as bolding,
underline, and italicizing. You can open files saved in ASCII in any other
program so long as you specify the format when opening the file or issue a
special import command. ASCII does not handle graphics files.
Encapsulated postscript file formats (EPS or EPSF) save graphics as high
resolution images in color or black and white. EPS files consume more disk
space than other file formats because they contain information required for
color separation. Images saved as EPS files are particularly suited to high
quality reproduction or commercial printing. EPS or EPSF is a vector-based
format.
Tag image file formats or TIFF is a common format for saving bit-mapped
graphics. You can save any scanned line art or grey-scale halftone image in
TIFF and import/export into desktop publishing programs or other graphics
software for further manipulation. The TIFF file format is a vector-based
format. TIFF is less capable as a format for color images than EPS.
Raster image file formats (RIFF) is a PC image-editing program similar to
TIFF in very high resolution. Vector-based formats may be converted to
RIFF by a RIP.
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