Image format
The TIFF format
TIFF is a high-fidelity format used by scanners, printers and archives. Aldus created TIFF in 1986 for desktop scanners; it became the standard hand-off format for print and archives.
When to use TIFF
Use TIFF when a printer, publisher or archive asks for it, or for master copies of scans.
It is best for scans, print production and long-term archiving, and it opens on photo editors, macOS Preview and Windows Photos, but not Chrome, Firefox or most upload forms.
How to open it: macOS Preview, Windows Photos and any photo editor open TIFF files; web browsers mostly don’t.
| Full name | Tagged Image File Format |
|---|---|
| Extensions | .tif, .tiff |
| MIME type | image/tiff |
| Introduced | 1986 |
| Compression | Lossless |
| Transparency | Yes |
| Animation | No |
| Support | Patchy support |
| Typical size | A scanned A4 page can be 20–50 MB |
Good at
- Lossless, with 16-bit color and color profiles
- Can hold several pages in one file
- The format print shops and archives trust
Not so good at
- Very large files
- Browsers and websites generally won’t display it
The common mistake
Multi-page TIFFs from scanners look like one picture in some viewers, so pages go unnoticed when converting.
Convert TIFF to another image format
Questions
What is a TIFF file?
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a high-fidelity format used by scanners, printers and archives. Aldus created TIFF in 1986 for desktop scanners; it became the standard hand-off format for print and archives.
How do I open a TIFF file?
macOS Preview, Windows Photos and any photo editor open TIFF files; web browsers mostly don’t.
How do I convert TIFF to another format?
Pick the target on this page, or open the Image Converter, drop the TIFF file and choose a format. It converts in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.