Turn TIFF files into GIF
This makes a GIF out of the TIFF you already have. GIF is the usual choice for short looping animations and reaction clips. The practical difference is that the result opens anywhere, which TIFF files do not. Your file never leaves your computer.
Need the other direction? Convert GIF to TIFF
How to convert TIFF to GIF
- 1 Drop your TIFF .tiff or .tif file onto the page, or click to browse for it.
- 2 Check the options. Nothing is thrown away on the way to GIF, so there is no quality dial to set.
- 3 Convert. The work happens on your own machine, so how long it takes depends on your computer and the file.
- 4 Download the GIF, or add more files and do the whole set in one go.
Why convert TIFF to GIF
- A TIFF will not open in a browser, so anything going onto a web page, into a document or into a message has to become a GIF first.
- Animation plays everywhere with no player or plugin needed.
- Flat colours stay crisp, with nothing smudged around the edges.
- Short looping animations and reaction clips.
- TIFF: the flexibility means some TIFF variants are unreadable elsewhere.
TIFF compared with GIF
How the two formats differ on the things that decide whether a conversion is worth making.
| Property | TIFF | GIF |
|---|---|---|
| File extension | .tiff | .gif |
| Compression | Lossy or lossless | Lossless |
| Animation | No | Yes |
| Multiple pages | Yes | No |
| Colour depth | Up to 32 bits per channel, RGB, CMYK, Lab and greyscale | 8-bit indexed, 256 colours per frame |
| Typical file size | Depends on mode | Larger |
| Browser support | No browser support | Every browser |
| Introduced | 1986 | 1987 |
| Developed by | Aldus, now Adobe | CompuServe |
Quality and what changes
GIF stores the same content under a different set of rules, so what matters here is compatibility rather than picture quality. Convert once from the best source you have rather than through a chain of intermediate files.
- A multi-page TIFF produces one GIF per page.
- One GIF limitation to keep in mind: transparency is on or off with nothing in between, so edges look jagged.
Questions about TIFF to GIF
Why does the GIF look grainy or banded?
GIF allows only 256 colours per frame. Photographic content, gradients and skin tones cannot be represented exactly, so the encoder dithers, which reads as speckle. Flat graphic content survives the palette far better than filmed footage.
What happens to a multi-page TIFF?
GIF holds one page, so each page becomes a separate file and you get the set as a ZIP. Nothing is discarded, it just cannot stay in a single document.
Is my TIFF file uploaded anywhere?
No. The whole thing runs inside the browser tab you already have open. Your TIFF is read straight from your own disk, converted on your machine and handed back as a GIF. Nothing is sent anywhere, nothing is stored and there is no account.
Is there a file size limit?
There is no server-side limit because no server sees the file. The real ceiling is your device memory, since the input and the output both have to fit in the tab. A few hundred megabytes is usually fine on a desktop machine and considerably less on a phone.
Can I convert several TIFF files at once?
Yes. Add as many as you like and they are processed one after another, then offered as separate GIF downloads or as a single ZIP. Speed depends on your own processor rather than on a queue.
Does the converter work offline?
Yes, after the page has loaded once. The engine is cached by the browser, so you can disconnect, reload and keep converting. That falls out of doing the work locally rather than being a separate mode you switch on.