File Save Back
File Save As
File Save to Default

These commands all save the current image as a file. They display the standard Windows File Save dialog box -- first select the file type you want to use and then the image file name, then click OK. If you leave off the filename extension, a default extension based on the selected file type is added. If you enter an extension that is inconsistent with the file type, you get a warning and the option to substitute the correct extension and continue.

The currently supported file types are:

The differences between Save As, Save Back, and Save to Default has to do with which folder the standard Windows File Save dialog box starts in. Save Back starts in the same folder the original image came from, if any and starts with the original filename. Save As starts in the last folder you saved a file in. Save to Default starts in the default folder (which you can set with the Set Default Folder command).

Pathname Conflicts

You cannot save a file with the same name as a file that is currently open since that would invalidate the branch of the image tree that starts with the open file. This happens because the command in the File Open image refers to the original file. If you save a new file over the original file, the image the File Open command loads will no longer correspond to the one that was used to create its branch of the image tree. Thus, if you saved and re-opened the workspace script, it would open the new file instead of the old file and apply the changes meant for the old file to the new one.

On the other hand, sometimes you may need to open a file, make some changes, and save it with the same name as the original file. If a file of the selected name is already open, a dialog box is displayed giving you three options via its drop-down menu:

Save file under a different name:

By default, a unique filename based on the original filename is suggested to you by appending " v1" to the filename. If v1 is in use, the version number is increased until an unused version number is found. This avoids inadvertently overwriting the original file with its edited version. Or you can simply enter a totally different name to prevent the name conflict with the open file.

Rename the open file to:

If you select this option, you can rename the original file to a unique filename as in the previous option, and the command line in the File Open image is modified to open the renamed file. At this point you can save the new file with the old name without creating a conflict or messing up the workspace. After you close Picture Window, if you no longer want to use the workspace script, you can then delete the original file.

Browse for a new pathname

In this option you start over and select a different folder and/or filename to save the file.

Overwrite Warning

If you attempt to save a file with the same name as a file that already exists, you will see the following Overwrite Warning dialog box:

At this point you can do one of three things:

Click Cancel to return to the File Save dialog box and choose a different name.

Click Overwrite the existing file to delete the existing file and overwrite it with the new file.

Click Save with a different pathname to save with a different name that you enter below. By default, a unique filename based on the original filename is suggested to you by appending " v1" to the filename. If v1 is in use, the version number is increased until an unused version number is found. Or you can simply enter a totally different name to save under.

Image Info

When you save an image, the name you saved it under and date and time you saved it are recorded and can be displayed via the Image Info command.

Image Browser

After a File Save, an S is displayed near the upper right corner of the thumbnail in the image browser as a reminder that the image has been saved at least once since it was created.

Saving 16-bit Black and White or 48-bit Color Images

These types of files can only be saved as TIFF or PNG files, since JPEG, GIF and BMP do not support more than 8 bits per channel. Saving as JPEG, GIF or BMP will save an 8-bit black and white or 24-bit color version of the image instead.

File Save Options

For each image file type, there is a set of File Save options. For example, when saving JPEG files, you can adjust the image quality and chroma subsampling. You can configure default options for each file type using the File/Preferences command. One of the options for each file type is whether or not to ask for settings every time you save or just to go ahead with the pre-configured defaults. If Ask for options on Save is checked in the Preferences dialog for a particular file type, here are the dialog boxes that a displayed when you do a file save:

There are four Metadata options:

All -- all metadata is copied from the image from which the current image was derived, if any. This includes the ICC profile and all EXIF, IPTC, XMP and GPS metadata.

All but GPS -- this copies all the metadata but removes GPS geolocation data in case you don't want anyone to know where the photo was taken.

Profile Only -- this copies only the ICC Profile, although a few scraps of other metadata may still remain.

None -- saves the file without any metadata, giving the smallest possible file size, although a few scraps of metadata may still remain.

Note: If you select the options All or All but GPS, ExifTool is called in the background to transfer the metadata from the original file, if any, to the file you are saving. The first time you save with one to these options, there is a delay while ExifTool is loaded. There is also a performance penalty for these options since the entire saved file has to be written a second time to copy the metadata. If you select Profile Only or None, ExifTool is not called so saving the file is somewhat faster.

There are three script options:

Don't Include Script -- just the image file is saved; no script file is saved.

Include Script with Image Names -- a script file is saved in the same folder as the image file and with the same filename, but with the extension .script. This script file can be used to rebuild the file and all the steps that led to its creation, assuming the original files are still available.

Include Script with Image Copies -- a script file is saved in the same folder as the image file and with the same filename, but with the extension .script. This script file can be used to rebuild the file and all the steps that led to its creation, using copies of the original files that are stored in a subfolder.

For more information of saving scripts, see Scripts.

TIFF Compression supports None, LZW or ZIP.

JPEG Quality can be set from 0% (lowest quality, smallest files) to 100% (highest quality, largest files).

Chroma Subsampling lets you reduce file size further by representing color information at a lower resolution than luminance information. The value of 4:2:0 is the default -- 4:4:4 preserves color at full resolution.

If Show summary info after save is checked, Picture Window will display a summary after saving which shows you the actual file size and lets you re-save if you want to change any of the settings.

BMP Version -- BMP V5 supports ICC Profiles. BMP V1 does not. V1 is always used if the image you are saving has no profile.

For those file formats that do not support 16-bit images (JPEG, BMP, GIF), images are silently converted to 8-bit before saving.