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I have this JPEG image saved out of PS using "Save As" and selecting "JPEG".

  • It's abnormally large for it's WxH resolution
  • Mac Preview's info shows it as an uncompressed TIFF
  • Trying to save it out of PS with 0 quality makes no difference

Source image: https://digital-origins-public.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/what-is-this.jpg

Save As Dialog from PS Mac Preview Info Dialog

  1. What is this thing?
  2. How can I save it out of Photoshop as a normal JPEG using "Save As"?
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3 Answers 3

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If you run the file through ExifTool, you'll see that it contains a huge number of Document Ancestors elements:

Document Ancestors              : 0, 0000A6C7815905497C2762FB3073AC1B, ...
...
Warning                         : [Minor] Extracted only 1000 photoshop: DocumentAncestors items. Ignore minor errors to extract all

If you remove all EXIF data (exiftool -all=), the remaining file is only 792KB in size. AFAIK, Photoshop will remove these unnecessary metadata when you use Save for Web.

There's also a thread about this phenomenon:

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  • \$\begingroup\$ It's not necessary to remove all metadata. Just the XMP-related tags: exiftool -xmp:all= image.jpg \$\endgroup\$
    – xiota
    Nov 7, 2019 at 20:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ While I'm marking your answer correct, sadly it doesn't give me a way to save the file without this extra data using "Save As". I need that because we are saving a lot of these files using scripts and "Export" or "Save for Web" are not compatible. \$\endgroup\$
    – Sean256
    Nov 7, 2019 at 21:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ Actually, that link you gave has a script to remove all of that garbage! Thanks! \$\endgroup\$
    – Sean256
    Nov 7, 2019 at 22:50
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As indicated by its "magic number" bytes (FF D8 FF E1), it is a JPEG file in EXIF fomat. You are probably more accustomed to the JFIF format. Note that in the EXIF format (which is a "container" format) there are several possible encodings for the image itself, including the TIFF format.

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For me it seems like the image (JPEG you provide via URL) is ordinary JPEG file with some hidden information inside (Steganography). You can check this Q/A for more information. It incorporate binary codes C3 BF (can be decoded as ÿ). The total size of included information is 2.7MB. You can test it here.

P.S. You can save it (after open in PS) via usual way: File->Save As, or use File->Export->Export As (for more options)

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