Underscores or Hyphens

[jmwscot]

Could someone please clarify whether to use either a hyphen or an underscore as a separator in an image file. If I 'Save for Web' in Photoshop it inserts hyphens but in Lightroom files for uploading to web have underscores inserted. I have also read in many posts that Google ignores underscores and treats the name as all one word. However I notice that most professional images use underscores. Is there a definitive answer?

John

[DarkPenguin]

Is there a definitive answer?

No, I don't think there is.

[Panopeeper]

Could someone please clarify whether to use either a hyphen or an underscore as a separator in an image file

There are functional differences betwen an underscore and a hyphen in certain programs. For example some text formatting programs treate hyphen as a suitable location for word separation, but not underscore. The relevance of that is tiny, namely how the URL appears in text format.

The only really important aspect is, that space should be anywhere in the URL, for that often causes erroneous reconstruction (many programs end the URL at the first space, when you click on the link you use only part of the URL).

[frugal]

Personally, I find underscore as easier to scan over as a space so I use it for spaces and hyphens for situations that I want a hyphen. Hyphen also has certain other meanings where underscore typically doesn't. For instance, I use ISO format dates (I work in IT so I got in the habit, I can elaborate on the advantages of this format if necessary), which is yyyy-mm-dd, if I used hyphens for separating other elements this would get confusing.

Using a mix gives you more versatility. If I wanted to add more elements to the filename (such as a sequence number), I'd likely separate them with underscores, this helps my eye scan over the elements very easily. Say something like 2009-08-02_032_hydrostone.nef, right away I can see the date, sequence number and descriptive text.

[milt]

I second the comment about Google.  Google treats only hyphen as a word separator, and it also likes long descriptive file and directory names.  Any professionals using underscores in their web file names are missing a bet.

--Milt--

[peteh]

I use underscores in FILE names .I don't think the web likes them.