Photoshop File Size

shagstlm · November 19, 2003 7:03PM

Ok this may sound a little ridiculus to you but stay with me. I need to open a 600MB TIFF in Photoshop. I can't break up the image. I just need to know if it can be done and what system it needs. Right now its on a Powermac G4 Dual 1.25 w/786 RAM. Thanks a lot.

ghost_user_name · November 19, 2003 7:59PM

That should work, albeit maybe a bit slow. You *will* end up paging some memory to disk because Photoshop tends to like to have twice as much memory available as the file size, but it should still work. Just be patient with it.

BTW, what kind of file is this that's so large?

ast3r3x · November 19, 2003 8:35PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Brad

That should work, albeit maybe a bit slow. You *will* end up paging some memory to disk because Photoshop tends to like to have twice as much memory available as the file size, but it should still work. Just be patient with it.

BTW, what kind of file is this that's so large?

Nothing but the highest quality porn for him

...my way of saying I'm curious too

outsider · November 19, 2003 9:17PM

We work with files that are 800MB-1.5GB. High resolution, a dozen layers with layer effects, etc. can really bloat the file sizes up. Too bad Photoshop only sees 2GB of system RAM...

ebby · November 19, 2003 9:22PM

That's a large TIFF image. The biggest files I used were multi-gigabyte PDF files and those opened on a 333Mhz Beige G3. (This was a long time ago, before I was told you didn't have to scan an image at 1200 DPI to print at 1200 DPI)

ghost_user_name · November 19, 2003 11:30PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Outsider

We work with files that are 800MB-1.5GB. High resolution, a dozen layers with layer effects, etc. can really bloat the file sizes up.

Oh, I can imagine a Photoshop file that large. This is a TIFF, though.

pscates · November 19, 2003 11:42PM

Plugging some numbers into Art Directors Toolkit (I LOVE that app!), a 36"x24" RGB image at 300ppi is only 222MB. In CMYK, it jumps up to 296MB.

So either he's opening something REALLY large, physically, OR it's something fairly normal-sized (8x10 or so) but at a really high resolution (1200ppi or more?).

Hell, to reach a 600MB file, I had to plug in some ridiculously high numbers in the dimensions or resolution fields!

Must be a bus stop poster or one of those banners you see airplanes tow.

Although those aren't usually high-res...we always did large format stuff at 88-100ppi off our big 5' Encad and if you viewed it from 3'-4' feet away (or farther) it looked wonderful.

shagstlm · November 20, 2003 1:15AM

I can't really say what it is because of where I work but let me tell you it is a huge file of a huge mosaic. 35569 x 17784 8-bit. Thanks for all of the responses. I must say that I still can't get it to open. It says something to the effect of "parsing error". It opens in xv and graphic converter fine....I don't know...weird..Thanks a lot!

chopper3 · November 20, 2003 3:01AM

I've worked with similar sized files in the past - I would guess that the files are high-resolution airbourne photographs in the 25cm/pixel range.

shagstlm · November 20, 2003 9:20AM

like i said i cant really say but they are similar to an arial photo

macrat · November 21, 2003 2:04PM

If you can open it in Graphic Converter, have you tried saving it out of that as another tiff or photoshop file?

curiousuburb · November 21, 2003 4:00PM

suddenly, 8 Gb of RAM and a rev B dual 2+ G5 sounds like a January necessity

IIRC, LivePicture was good at monstrous files due to fractal compression technology

outsider · November 21, 2003 7:49PM

Quote:

Originally posted by curiousuburb

suddenly, 8 Gb of RAM and a rev B dual 2+ G5 sounds like a January necessity

IIRC, LivePicture was good at monstrous files due to fractal compression technology

Problem is Photoshop will only recognize up to 2GB

kraig911 · November 21, 2003 9:32PM

I just got through FTP'ing a billboard I've been working on that was 800 Gig, you're just going to have to be patient man. One way in the future you might want to try is be responsible with your layers... you'd be surprised but some people make way to many to do something when you can really get a lot done within one.

4fx · November 22, 2003 4:24PM

Apparently Photoshop can handle images that are only 30,000 by 30,000 pixels or less. This is probably why you are getting a parsing error.

http://library.wustl.edu/~listmgr/im...2001/0007.html

However, Photoshop CS now supports images up to 300,000 by 300,000 pixels, 10 times the pixel count of version 7.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photos...oshop_nfhs.pdf

(Under "For Graphic Designers" on page 1)

So it looks like if you upgrade to Photoshop CS you will be able to open the file.

Also (this is mainly for Brad), Tiff files can now have layers just like psd files (new to PS7). The thing is that if you take a layered image and save it as both a tiff and a psd, the tiff will always be larger, in many cases much larger (without compression). Typically I only save flattened tiffs. InDesign can handle psd files, so layered tiffs really arent all that necessary... but it looks like in this case, he really does just have a HUGE file

4fx · November 22, 2003 4:30PM

I just tried to create a new file in Photoshop with pixel dimensions that fit your image, and it does in fact say that you are limited to 30,000 pixels on each axis (I tried it with version 7).

So upgrading to CS should solve the problem

Hope this info helps.

shagstlm · November 23, 2003 1:31AM

I suspected as much with the pixel limitation but I could never find the right documentation. Thanks a ton. I'll be upgrading...like tomorrow...hahah.

cowerd · November 23, 2003 11:13AM

Quote:

That should work, albeit maybe a bit slow. You *will* end up paging some memory to disk because Photoshop tends to like to have twice as much memory available as the file size, but it should still work. Just be patient with it.

PS tend to use more in the order of 3X to 10x the file size in RAM these days. It, of course depends on history states, layers, and live type and adjustment layers. A better rule of thumb with v6 and up is 10x--I'm never surprised this way.

Photoshop File Size

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