The most common file format in Photoshop is .psd, which is the native Photoshop file format (Photoshop document). The drawback to .psd is that, because it is native to Photoshop, other applications may have trouble opening this format. To move files between applications, to print or to publish on the World Wide Web, you must save your files in a compatible format.

     Here are some common formats with brief definitions of their uses. Note that Photoshop can handle many other graphics formats as well.

• Bitmap (.bmp) This is a standard file format for Windows
• GIF (.gif) GIF Stands for the Graphics Interchange Format. It is one of the three formats you can use for Web publishing. Because it is a compressed format, it takes less time to download over a modem.
• JPEG (.jpg) JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG is another format for Web Publishing.
• PDF (.psf) Adobe's Acrobat Page Description Format, a system for creating documents that can be read cross-platform.
• PNG (.png) Stands for either "Portable Network Graphic" or "PNG's Not GIF", depending on whom you ask. It's the newest and arguably the best format for Web graphics, combining the good compression like of GIFs with the unlimited color palette of JPEGs. However, older browsers and some newer browsers don't support it.
• TIFF (.tif) Tiff Stands for Tagged-Image File Format. These files can be saved for use on either Macs or Windows machines. This is also often the preferred format for desktop publishing applications such as PageMaker, WordPerfect, MS Office, and QuarkXpress.
• EPS (.eps) Encapsulated PostScript is another format often used for desktop publishing. It uses PostScript page description language and can be used by both Macs and PCs.
• PICT (.pct) This is mainly a Macintosh format. It, too, is widely used in desktop publishing.
• Raw (.raw) This format saves image information in the most flexible format for transferring files between different computer applications and platforms.