question about tiff files

what are tiff files for? what can you do with em? why use them. The reason why Im asking, my jpeg look no different than my tiff.
Sorry if this is a stupid question.

Tiff files can be good for "project files" that you want to edit in an application because they have not undergone jpeg compression which throws away image data. They can further be saved as 16 bit-per-channel files which gives even more to work with than 8 bits-per-channel for apps that can make use of that. Also, tiffs can preserve layers that are used by Photoshop and other apps so that a project can be revisited.

What this all means is that you can work with a tiff and save it repeatedly and you avoid the re-compressing process that happens whenever you open a jpeg, edit it, and then save it. Know that for some things you may not notice a "destructive" artifact from working with jpegs, but in time something can show up and wreck your day!

The tradeoff is that tiffs are larger files than jpegs, and 16 bit tiffs are way larger. You make decisions depending on your needs.

There are advantages and disadvantages.
Tiff supports 16 bit so if your looking to do fine art prints and need the maximum color resolution tiff can support 4.5 trillion colors where jpeg only supports 16 million. This can be most dramatic when the image is primarily only has one color channel as each color channel only supports 256 graduation as opposed to 16k for tiff.
Tiff is either uncompressed or uses a lossless compression. Jpeg, depending on the compression level, compresses the image quite a bit. This can really become a issue when you have to edit the picture. If you start with a jpeg as the master image, do some editing and save it, it compresses again. Do this a couple of times and you start to see all the compression artifacting.

Tiff supports layers and Jpeg does not.

So, if you're printing, plan to edit, or want to retain all the image info, use Tiff.

If you're displaying on a monitor (facebook, flickr and such), plan on no editing, and don't care about the original image data, use jpeg.

so if I go to photo shop, how to i open all the layers back up because I only see the pic

mosteller wrote in post #12011914
so if I go to photo shop, how to i open all the layers back up because I only see the pic

Did you flatten the pic before saving? If so, there is no layer info. Save the image along with the layers before flattening. Then when you open the layers will come back.

mosteller wrote in post #12011914
so if I go to photo shop, how to i open all the layers back up because I only see the pic

You should be able to see the "Background" layer. If you can't then maybe you don't have the layers palette open.