How to save Scanned Photos at 48bit true-color?

[Guest]

I have got hold of some good photos of various aircrafts, aerial views, and airports. I scanned it using my scanner at 48-bit mode and when I attempted to save it at 48bit true-color, only the TIFF file format will save it at that resolution and all other file formats are saving only at 24bit true-color.Am I correct if I say that a 48bit true-color photo scans can only be saved in the TIFF format? Or else can we save as 48bit true-color in other formats as well such as BMP, JPG, etc? Thanks Shri

[JimmiG 244]

BMP and JPG only support 24-bit truecolor. Truecolor has enough colors (over 16million) to save a photo. 32-bit color is 24-bit plus an "alpha-channel" to store transparencies.I can bet that saving your "48-bit" images as 24-bit BMP will not result in a quality loss :)Saving them as a JPG will reduce the quality, because JPEG compresses the images to save space.

[Guest outtatimeiii]

LOL I thought 24-bit on my scanner was great quality. I usually did ~300 dpi and turned on descreen and photos usually come out great. Only problem with my scanner is the hassle of getting it to work in XP, its not XP compatible at ALL.

[Guest]

A friend of mine is telling me that .png should support higher color depths. Photoshop6 isn't letting me save a 48bit image as png tho. Not sure if any software supports png to that extent yet. Maybe ps7.Looks like your only option is tiff, or psd (if you're software supports photoshop files).

[JimmiG 244]

Remember that currently no videocard supports more than 32-bit truecolor, and only 24-bit of that is actually used to display graphics.I actually don't know why scanners brag with 36-bit, 48-bit and even-bit colors. Does anyone know? Is it for increased precision?