Photoshop CS5 parsing TIFF file

[Joe G]

I sometimes get the following message when opening a Photoshop file: "Could not import the clipboard because of a problem parsing the TIFF file". If I get this message the file will not open, but when I try to open it a second time it opens, and without any message. Can anyone tell me how to avoid getting this message.

[Lukas Engqvist]

I think it depends on what you have on your clipboard. I guess cutting out something that photoshop knows how to parse before entering photoshop is the answer.

The clipboard is usually part of the operating system, so it would be interesting to know what operating system you have, if you are running into memory problems and from what program you are switching to photoshop (as it may be that program that may be sending defect information to the clipboard).

[Joe G]

Thanks for the reply. That makes sense because when I get the message in Photoshop I'm not even opening a tiff, but it's usually a psd that I'm opening. I'm using OS 10.5.8 on a G5 Dual-Core Intel Xeon with 4GB of memory, and I very seldom have memory problems. I work in a Prepress environment and the software I've used before Photoshop is most likely Illustrator CS4. What's on the clipboard before opening the psd is most likely a vector element in Illustrator or it was text that was copied in the Finder.

Can you explain what you mean by "cutting out something that photoshop knows how to parse before entering photoshop is the answer".

[Lukas Engqvist]

Hmm.
What i mean by cutting out what photoshop can parse is that there may be a certain type of object that either gets corrupted from the previous application (you mention Illustrator) and photoshop. A clipboard may contain the object you cut in multiple formats. If you are pasting between Adobe applications it is the AICB format and/or PDF. That the error is a tiff error could be that that is what Photoshop interprets non photoshop data too.

You say a G5 dual core intel xeon? I get confused is the Intel Xeon a G5? I have a quad core G5 as my workstationon and didn't know there was an intel core version?

What I can guess, and so far i can only guess, is that either you get corruption to the clipboard or from the clipboard. You must find a way do reliably reproduce the error to find out which.

Another wild guess would be a memory or disc error. If it is a G5 you may run into where your hard drive is getting worn out on a 24/7 graphics machine.

As i'm writing I also remember that photoshop does make more use of graphics card from CS4 and later.

One thing I find inconsistent is you originally phrase the problem as a CS5 issue, but you use Illustrator CS4? Do you have CS4 and CS5 open at the same time and switch not only between apps but also different versions of the apps?

[Joe G]

In System Profiler the description for the mac is:
Mac Pro
MacPro1, 1
Dual-Core Intel Xeon
3GHz
Number of Processors: 2

I use Illustrator CS4 because that is what the clients are working with to create their files and I have to work their files in the same version of Illustrator to avoid any problems with different type engines or other differences between the versions. If I need to work on an image that is placed in the Illustrator file I'll open it in Photoshop CS5 and work the image. Since the image is only linked and is a separate file I'd rather use the latest version of Photoshop.

Thanks so much for all your information and suggestions. Just to know that the file I'm opening in Photoshop is not the cause of the message is good, and the fact that I can still open the image let's me do what I have to do to get the job out. Thanks again!!