Photo scanning - tiff or jpg?

We’re often asked by photo scanning clients, which file format should I opt for - tiff or jpg?
Sometimes clients think that one format offers a better quality image than the other. That isn’t the case, scanning quality is determined by the dpi setting. In essence the higher the dpi the better the quality of the scan. So a 4,000 dpi tiff file is the same image quality as a 4,000 dpi jpg.
A tiff file is uncompressed, while a jpg is compressed. The maths behind image file compression is brilliant so for the vast majority of applications the fact that the file is compressed isn’t an issue. In fact jpg files are smaller, easier to email, quicker to open, making life a lot easier for most of us.
If you intend to do a lot of serious image editing a tiff file may be better. You can save without compression until you get to a final image, which you might save as a jpg for distribution. You can edit and save a tiff file many, many times without loss of quality, that’s the advantage.
Professional photographers typically want tiff files although many serious amateurs also opt for tiffs. If you’ve bitten the bullet on the price of Photoshop the extra cost and processing overheads of tiffs are hardly likely to be a barrier.
If you have slides or negatives as a source material tiff files are a viable option. If you’re sending photos (prints) then its unlikely that you’ll get any real advantage from tiffs, which is why we scan prints to jpg files.