Choosing formats for use in other applications

Adobe Premiere Pro exports to many formats that are readable by other applications. Before you export a video file to other video‑editing or special‑effects software, answer the following questions to help you decide which formats meet your needs:

• Which file formats and compression methods does the other software import? Export files in the needed formats, using the needed codecs.

• Are you transferring across computer platforms? Choose file formats and compression methods supported by both platforms. Consider using high-quality, cross-platform codecs, such as QuickTime Motion JPEG A or B, or the Animation codec.

• Are you superimposing the clips over other clips? Preserve alpha channel transparency by exporting with one of the following: On2 VP6 codec for FLV, Apple Animation or Apple None codec at 32-bit color depth for MOV, or codec None at 32-bit color depth for AVI.

• Are you adding special effects or processing the video and audio in other ways? Processing tends to degrade image and sound quality, so it’s best to use the highest quality source material possible. Maintaining quality sometimes outweighs other considerations (such as limiting file size and data rate). Then choose a high-quality codec, or one that doesn’t use compression at all.

• Do you want to paint on frames? If so, you can export frames as a numbered sequence of individual still‑image files, and edit each file in Photoshop.

• Do you want to use a single frame as a still image? If so, see Export a still image.