Image formats6 min read
What Is a TIFF File and How Do You Open It?
TIFF is the heavy duty image format behind scanners, faxes, print shops and archives. Here is what it is, where it came from, how to open it on any device and when to convert it.
What is a TIFF file? It is a high quality image saved in the Tagged Image File Format, with the extension .tif or .tiff, used by scanners, fax services, print shops and archives because it can store pictures without any quality loss and hold many pages in a single file. The tradeoff is size and compatibility: TIFF files are large, and many phones and websites cannot show them.
What is a TIFF file?
TIFF is less a single image format than a flexible container. The file starts with a short header, followed by one or more directories of tags. Each tag describes one property, such as the width, the color model, the resolution or the compression used, and points to the image data.
That tag system lets one format cover very different jobs:
- No compression at all, for maximum safety and very large files.
- Lossless compression such as LZW, Deflate (ZIP) or PackBits, which shrinks the file without changing a pixel.
- Fax compression (CCITT Group 3 and Group 4) for black and white documents.
- JPEG compression inside the TIFF, which is lossy like a normal JPG.
- Several pages in one file, each with its own size and settings.
- Many color models: black and white, grayscale, RGB, CMYK for printing, with 8 or 16 bits per channel.
The .tif and .tiff extensions mean exactly the same thing. The shorter one dates from old systems that allowed only three letters after the dot, the same story as JPG vs JPEG.
Turn heavy scans and camera TIFFs into light JPGs. Free, no signup.
Where TIFF comes from
TIFF was created at Aldus Corporation, the company behind the PageMaker desktop publishing app. Aldus published the first specification in 1986, with Microsoft involved, to persuade the makers of the new desktop scanners to agree on one common file format instead of many private ones.
Revision 5.0 in 1988 added palette color and LZW compression, and Revision 6.0 followed in June 1992. That 1992 version is still the reference today. Adobe acquired Aldus in 1994 and has held the TIFF specification ever since.
Many formats grew out of TIFF. GeoTIFF adds map coordinates for satellite and aerial images, and several camera raw formats, including Adobe DNG, are built on the same tag structure. The Library of Congress keeps a detailed format description of TIFF 6.0 and lists TIFF among its preferred formats for several kinds of image collections.
Where you will meet TIFF files today
- Scanners and office printers: many offer TIFF as a save option, often as a multipage file with one page per sheet.
- Online fax services: incoming faxes often arrive as multipage TIFF attachments.
- Print and publishing: designers and print shops use TIFF for photos in brochures, books and packaging, often in CMYK.
- Archives, libraries and museums: scanned master copies are kept as uncompressed or losslessly compressed TIFF.
- Maps and science: GeoTIFF for mapping, and high bit depth TIFF from microscopes and lab cameras.
- Photo editing: some photographers export edited photos as TIFF to keep full quality before the final JPG.
TIFF vs JPG
TIFF and JPG solve different problems. TIFF is for keeping or exchanging the best possible copy, JPG is for sharing.
| Feature | TIFF | JPG |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | None, lossless or lossy, your choice | Always lossy |
| Saving again after edits | No loss with lossless settings | A little loss each time |
| Pages per file | One or many | One |
| Color depth | Up to 16 bits per channel and more | 8 bits per channel in everyday files |
| File size | Large, often many times a JPG | Small |
| Web browsers and upload forms | Mostly not supported | Supported almost everywhere |
| Best for | Scanning, printing, archiving, editing masters | Email, websites, social media, forms |
Why TIFF files get so large
An uncompressed image stores every pixel in full. A scan of a letter size page at 600 DPI has tens of millions of pixels, and each color pixel takes three bytes at 8 bits per channel, or six bytes at 16 bits. The file grows quickly before any compression is applied.
Lossless compression helps most on documents with white space and least on detailed photos. Classic TIFF files also have a size ceiling of about 4 GB, because the format stores positions as 32 bit numbers. A variant called BigTIFF removes that limit for huge maps and scientific images, but many everyday apps cannot open it.
Looking inside a TIFF
Because TIFF is built from tags, a single file can carry the camera or scanner model, the date, the resolution and an embedded color profile. The EXIF Viewer reads TIFF files in your browser and shows that information, and it warns you when a file named .tif is really in another format.
If you are weighing JPG against the other everyday format, see our PNG vs JPG comparison.
How to open a TIFF file
Windows 11
Double click the file and it opens in the Photos app. With a multipage TIFF, such as a fax, the Photos app may show only the first page, depending on its version. Paint also opens TIFF files, again one page at a time.
When you need to read every page of a fax or a scanned contract on Windows, converting the file to PDF is the simplest fix, because Edge and every other PDF reader page through it normally.
Mac
Preview opens TIFF files, including multipage ones. Choose View > Thumbnails to see every page in the sidebar. You can also select the file in Finder and press the Space bar for a Quick Look preview.
iPhone and iPad
Save the attachment to the Files app and tap it to open a preview. Mail also previews TIFF attachments. If a multipage file shows only one page, convert it to PDF, which every iPhone app pages through properly.
Android
Many gallery apps on Android cannot display TIFF. The Google Drive app is a reliable option: upload the file and open it, since Drive lists TIFF among the image types it can preview, as described on the Google Drive help page. Otherwise, convert it to JPG or PDF.
How to convert a TIFF file to JPG or PDF
Choose the target by what is in the file: a single photo becomes a JPG, a multipage document becomes a PDF.
TIFF to JPG with FileKiwi
- Open the TIFF to JPG converter in any browser.
- Add your .tif or .tiff files.
- Download each JPG, or all of them together as a ZIP.
TIFF files are converted on the FileKiwi server with ImageMagick. Only the first page of a multipage TIFF becomes the JPG, because a JPG holds a single image. A copy of each file you add is kept privately for 30 days, and the converted results are not stored.
Multipage TIFF to PDF
For faxes and scanned documents, use TIFF to PDF instead. Every page of a multipage TIFF becomes a page of the PDF, up to 200 pages per file, and the pages are stored without quality loss. You can add several TIFF files, put them in order and get one PDF.
With built in apps
- Mac: open the TIFF in Preview, choose File > Export, set Format to JPEG and click Save.
- Windows 11: open the TIFF in Paint, choose File > Save as > JPEG picture and click Save.
Both apps save one image per export, so they work for single photos rather than long fax documents.
When to keep TIFF and when to convert
- Keep TIFF for scan masters, archive copies, files a print shop asked for, and photos you are still editing.
- Convert to JPG to email a photo, post it online or upload it to a form.
- Convert to PDF for faxes, contracts and any multipage scan you need to share or print.
- Keep the original after converting, because JPG cannot give back the detail or the extra pages.
If a TIFF from a scanner is far too large, the problem is usually its pixel count, not only the format. Converting to JPG shrinks it a lot, and a PDF of the pages is easier for anyone to open on any device.
FAQ
What is a TIFF file used for?
TIFF files are used where image quality matters more than file size: scanning documents and photos, sending and receiving faxes, preparing images for professional printing, and keeping archive master copies. The format can store pictures without any loss and can hold many pages in one file, which suits scanned documents and faxes.
What is the difference between TIF and TIFF?
There is no difference. Both extensions point to the same Tagged Image File Format. The three letter .tif comes from older systems that allowed only three characters after the dot, while .tiff is the full spelling. You can rename one to the other without changing the image.
Is TIFF better than JPG?
TIFF is better for quality and editing, because it can be saved without any loss, supports more color depth and can hold several pages. JPG is better for sharing, because files are much smaller and every device, browser and upload form accepts them. Keep TIFF as the master and share a JPG copy.
How do I open a multipage TIFF file?
On a Mac, open it in Preview and turn on thumbnails to see every page. On Windows the Photos app may show only the first page. On any device, converting the file to PDF is the most reliable option, because every PDF reader pages through the document normally.
Why are TIFF files so large?
TIFF files are often saved with no compression or with lossless compression, so every pixel is kept exactly. Scanners also tend to save at a high resolution and color depth. A JPG of the same picture throws away detail you rarely notice, which is why it can be many times smaller.
Try TIFF to JPG now
Turn heavy scans and camera TIFFs into light JPGs. Works in your browser, free and without a watermark.
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