TIFF (Tag Image File Format) is an image format for editing and storing high-resolution digital images. Because it allows color depths ranging from 1 to 24 bits, TIFF is a common format for editing and raster graphics (bitmap pictures). TIFF files use file extensions .tiff or .tif.
Photographers, graphic designers, geoengineers, scientists, desktop publishers, and other professionals who demand high-quality pictures use the TIFF file format. This format is appropriate for professional usage since it maintains image quality without any loss.
Because TIFF files can hold high-quality, stable, and feature-rich images, the format can be used for creating and editing photographs, graphics, scanned images, optical character recognition (OCR), word processing, and other uncompressed file formats.
TIFF images can be grayscale, black and white, or color. These files are much bigger and take up more space than jpeg or png files. Users can non-destructively modify pictures layer by layer and save it as a TIFF file, something you can’t do with JPEG, PNG, or BMP files.
The format dates back to In 1986 when Aldous Corporation introduced the TIFF file format. It which would go on to become the widely accepted standard for high-resolution pictures. Later, the company merged with Adobe Systems.
Advantages of TIFF files
TIFF files allow you to save photos with different resolutions in various parts of the image. You can store multiple pages within a TIFF file because of its MultiPage functionality.
It is not possible to search text in your jpeg and png files. On the other hand, it is easier to search for text in TIFF images since they are taggable. TIFF files are device- and platform-agnostic. Therefore, it is easy to transfer saved files from one computer to another.
Disadvantages of TIFF files
Because TIFF files are larger due to the amount of information they carry, read, write, and transfer speeds across networks and between applications are slower than when working with JPEG, PNG, and other image formats. TIFF with larger file sizes is its slow transfer rate with slow internet connection. The internet uses jpeg, png, webp, and other smaller image formats. Therefore, web browsers don’t open them. Although most users will not encounter this problem, TIFF files are restricted to 4 GB because it uses 32-bit offsets.
What applications can open TIFF files?
Adobe Photoshop, Graphic Converter, Preview for macOS, PaintShop Pro, and the open-source image processing application GIMP are widely used applications for processing TIFF files, along with Google Photos on the web.
