What is a TIFF file?
TIFF is what print shops, scanners and archives ask for when a picture has to stay pristine. It can hold several pages in one file and keeps full colour detail. No browser will display it, so anything heading for the web has to be converted first. You can convert TIFF files here, both into the format and out of it.
Specification
| Full name | Tagged Image File Format |
|---|---|
| Extensions | .tiff, .tif |
| Media type | image/tiff |
| Compression | Lossy or lossless, depending on the mode |
| Transparency | Supported |
| Animation | Not supported |
| Multiple pages | Supported |
| Colour depth | Up to 32 bits per channel, RGB, CMYK, Lab and greyscale |
| Size limits | — |
| Introduced | 1986 |
| Developed by | Aldus, now Adobe |
| Standard | Open |
| Browser support | Not displayed by browsers |
What TIFF is used for
- Print production, where the press needs exact colours
- Document scanning, using multi-page TIFF as a fax-era standard
- Photographic and museum archives that need a perfect master copy
- Mapping and satellite imagery, as GeoTIFF
Strengths and limitations
What TIFF does well
- Keeps every detail and every shade, with proper colour management
- Multiple pages in a single file, useful for scanned documents
- The de facto archival master format for print and heritage work
Where TIFF falls short
- No browser displays TIFF natively, so the web needs a conversion
- The flexibility means some TIFF variants are unreadable elsewhere
- Uncompressed TIFF files are very large
Convert TIFF to
Every target this format can be written out as, each on its own page.
Convert to TIFF
Everything that can be turned into a TIFF file.
Tools that accept TIFF
Questions about TIFF
What is a .tiff file?
TIFF is what print shops, scanners and archives ask for when a picture has to stay pristine. The extension .tiff or .tif identifies it, and its media type is image/tiff.
How do I open a TIFF file?
Browsers do not display TIFF natively, so you either need software that understands it or you convert it to something more common first. Converting is usually the faster route when you only need to look at the contents once.
Is TIFF lossy or lossless?
Lossy or lossless, depending on the mode. Check which mode a particular file used before assuming anything about its quality.
What is TIFF good for?
Keeps every detail and every shade, with proper colour management. Multiple pages in a single file, useful for scanned documents. The de facto archival master format for print and heritage work. In practice that makes it a good fit for print production, where the press needs exact colours, and Document scanning, using multi-page TIFF as a fax-era standard.
What are the drawbacks of TIFF?
No browser displays TIFF natively, so the web needs a conversion. The flexibility means some TIFF variants are unreadable elsewhere. Uncompressed TIFF files are very large.