FixFile
File Format

TIFF (.tiff)

Tagged Image File Format — professional-grade image format for print, scanning, and archival. Supports lossless compression, multiple pages, and CMYK colour.

Extension
.tiff
MIME Type
image/tiff

Last updated

Overview

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) was developed by Aldus Corporation in 1986 and has been maintained by Adobe since 1994. It is a highly flexible raster image format used extensively in professional printing, prepress, archiving, and scientific imaging. The "tagged" structure means image properties (dimensions, colour space, compression type) are stored as separate tags, allowing enormous flexibility.

TIFF supports both lossless compression (LZW, ZIP/Deflate) and no compression, 8-bit and 16-bit colour channels, RGB, CMYK, LAB, and greyscale colour spaces, and multiple pages in a single file (Multi-TIFF). This combination of features makes it the preferred format for print-ready artwork, scanned document archives, and raw sensor data from scientific instruments.

Common Uses

  • Professional printing and prepress — printers and colour separators require CMYK TIFF files
  • Document scanning — multi-page TIFF is standard for legal, medical, and archival document scanning
  • Photography archival — photographers archive masters as 16-bit TIFF after RAW processing
  • GIS and satellite imagery — GeoTIFF (TIFF with geographic coordinate metadata) is the standard for mapping raster data
  • Publishing workflows — book layouts in Adobe InDesign typically embed TIFF images

Advantages

  • Lossless quality — LZW compression reduces file size without any pixel modification
  • 16-bit depth — stores full dynamic range data from RAW processing without quantisation
  • CMYK support — required for four-colour professional printing; JPG and PNG only support RGB
  • Multi-page — a single TIFF file can contain a complete scanned document
  • Wide industry adoption — universal support in all professional imaging, prepress, and DTP software

Limitations

  • Large files — even with LZW compression, TIFF files are 3–10× larger than equivalent JPG
  • No web support — browsers do not render TIFF images; must convert to JPG/PNG/WebP for web use
  • No native transparency in CMYK mode — alpha channels require specific software support
  • Slow to open — large TIFF files can take several seconds to open in standard viewers

Supported Software

  • Professional: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, GIMP, Affinity Photo, Capture One
  • Viewers: macOS Preview, Windows Photo Viewer, IrfanView
  • Scanning: NAPS2, VueScan, ScanSnap software

Tools for TIFF files