Scans saved as Jpegs or TIFF?

[Rupert49]

Like everybody else I expect to be able to preserve as much detail as possible when scanning old darkroom photographs to archive as digital files.

Having arrived at an optimum scan resolution by trial & error, I got to thinking about the bit depth of Jpeg vs. TIFF. I'm not very technically minded, but I do understand that a Jpeg file is only 8-bit depth and therefore holds the least amount of data compared to, say, a RAW file. Where does a TIFF file stand in this line up? I've been wondering if I should save scans as TIFF files until I've put them through PSE, from whence they would of course be archived as Jpeg files.

I would appreciate any learned advice on this point.

[Fen]

JPEG and TIFF can be 8 or 16bit to work on.

Files are best saved as TIFF files wit no compression so their is no degradation of information within the file.

Any scans I do are archived as TIFF files.

edit: left out 'work on' !

[Norman]

Can your scanner software create 16 bit TIFs or RAW files? Best to save as 16 bit if you can, you can always create a JPG later if needed. You're right, JPGs can't be 16 bit, PNGs can though.

[Nod]

Untouched scans get saved to CD/DVD as TIFFs with a copy to an external HDD. I then go through the folder to weed out any carp and keep a copy of the keepers on the internal HDD and the externals. As and when I PP them for printing, I may save a final JPEG copy in a sub-folder called prints, keeping the filename and suffixing it with the size - "6x4", "A3" etc. If all goes breasts to ceiling, I still have the original files to fall back on - and as a final resort, I can always rescan the negs/trannies.