Photoshop® Elements 7 All-in-One For Dummies®

Chapter 8. Choosing Color Modes and File Formats

In This Chapter

• Using color modes

• Converting images to different color modes

• Working with file formats

• Using audio and video formats

Regardless of what output you prepare your files for, you need to consider color mode and file format. The most common color mode for photos taken with a digital camera is RGB. This color mode is what you use to prepare color files for printing on your desktop color printer or for sending to photo service centers.

You can also use color modes other than RGB — bitmap or grayscale, for example. If you start with an RGB color image and want to convert to a different color mode, you have menu options for doing precisely that. Photoshop Elements uses an algorithm (a mathematical formula) to convert pixels from one mode to another. In some cases, the conversion that's made via a menu command produces good results; in other cases, you can use some different options for converting modes.

In this chapter, we introduce the modes that are available in Elements and explain how to convert from RGB to the mode of your choice: bitmap, grayscale, or indexed color. File formats are also somewhat dependent on which color mode you choose for your files, so we tossed in a discussion about saving files in this chapter.

Selecting a Color Mode

When you open an image from a digital camera or scan an image, the image file contains a color ...