Image format - Need to scan family photos

[Harper]

I am currently in the process of scanning family photo dating back the last 120 years. I would like to save distribute these photos with my family and immediate cousins.

What format should I be saving them as for Archiving Purposes?
I am currently considering PNG.
I am after some thing that will keep the quality of image and still be widely compatible on PC / Mac / *nix

 

[carnageX]

PNG has low compression and decent file size for the quality.

If you want total quality and don't care about size, then TIFF or BMP.

I pretty much save everything in PNG though.

 

[Harper]

PNG has low compression and decent file size for the quality.

If you want total quality and don't care about size, then TIFF or BMP.

Not so sure about TIFF format due to the availability of TIFF viewers. However I might see about saving these as BMP for myself (and any one else with large hard drive space)

 

[iParanormalx]

Not so sure about TIFF format due to the availability of TIFF viewers. However I might see about saving these as BMP for myself (and any one else with large hard drive space)

TIFF is pretty common anymore.. even MSpaint can do TIFF

 

[Harper]

TIFF is pretty common anymore.. even MSpaint can do TIFF

I was not aware of that.