TIFF

TIFF Conversion and Viewer Solutions

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What is TIFF

TIFF (.tiff or .tif) or Tagged Image File Format is a common and comprehensive format for storing and sending raster graphics (bitmap) across computer networks on a great variety of computer platforms. TIFF was developed in 1986 by the Aldus Corporation (which is now part of Adobe) as a means of establishing a standard method of storing black-and-white scanned documents and faxes. Today, TIFF files are still most often used for black and white images for the digitization of documents. Many additions have been made to the format since inception for gray-scale and color images and documents to support the needs of document processing, graphic design, desktop publishing and medical imaging.

There are several advantages to using TIFF:

  • It is a platform-independent format, therefore usable on all computing platforms including PCs and Macs
  • TIFF is very flexible in supporting many different information fields (meta tags) and compression schemes
  • It is a lossless image format, meaning no image quality is lost when the image is digitized
  • TIFF supports multiple formats, enabling multiple pages that might include black and white, gray-scale and color documents to be saved as a single TIFF file instead of several files
  • One of the biggest benefits to using TIFF lies in the fact almost every image-editing program can create or save a file in TIFF format though support for multiple pages and all the various compression schemes may require ‘professional strength’ programs.

TIFF files are composed of three unique data structures::

  • Image File Header – defines the image size (height and width), number of colors (bit depth), and other information needed to display the image
  • Image file directory – data structure within a TIFF file containing information on multiple images stored in that TIFF file. A TIFF file can have many IFDs
  • Bitmap Data – pixel by pixel information

Related Links

Snowbound Document Viewers & Converters for TIFF:

Additional Resources for Tiff Conversion and Viewing

More information on converting PDF to TIFF directly and rapidly, without having to invoke any external application or print driver.

​Snowbound Tech Tips:

​Snowbound Imaging Article: Adjusting DPI When Converting a TIFF to a PDF

Learn more about Snowbound Software solutions for image conversion.

​References and Resources:

Explore Our Other Supported Formats

You name the format. We got it.

The matrix below represents the formats we support and in what platform or stage of development the format is supported. Please refer to the key provided for definitions. Other formats in addition to the ones listed below may be supported. For more information on a specific format, click the name within the grid and you will be directed to an individual page.For up-to-date information regarding Snowbound's format support, please contact us.

Key:

  • B = Base
  • O = Optional format/ Additional charges may apply.
  • D = In development.
Test Your Documents
Format Notes Ext Extract Text Read Write
Video As supported by the browser, including: mp4, m4v, mkv, webm, and ogv and ogg
Audio As supported by the browser, including:mp3, m4a, wav, flac, and ogg
ABIC Includes image formats with ABIC compression,
including CIF, CIMS, COFF and TIFF.		 O
AFP Part of the AFP/MO:DCA Bundle, along with IOCA and PTOCA .afp yes O O
Annotations - XML B B
Annotations
(Filenet/Daeja)		 Filenet/Daeja annotations can be opened 
and then saved as a Snowbound XML-based
annotation		 B B
Annotations - Brava B
ASCII .txt yes B
BMP_Compressed .bmp B B
BMP_Uncompressed .bmp B B
CALS .cals B B
CCITT_G3 .tif B
CCITT_G3_FO .tif B
CFF .cif O
CIFF .cif O
CIMS O
DCX .dcx B
DIB .dib B B
DICOM Lossless DICOM is not supported .dcm B
DOC Sold as part of the MS Office Package
Cannot be purchased individually		 .doc yes O
DOCX Sold as part of the MS Office Package
Cannot be purchased individually		 .docx yes O
DWG .dwg D
DXF .dxf D
EMAIL (MSG) Sold as part of the MS Office Package
Cannot be purchased individually		 .msg O
EPS (bitmap only) .eps B B
EPS_BITMAP .eps B B
EPS_BITMAP_G4 .eps B
EPS_BITMAP_LZW .eps B
FILENET B
GIF .gif B B
GIF_INTERLACED .gif B
HGPL Support for HPGL & HGPL2; Sold as part of the PCL module .hgpl O
HTML .htm yes O
IMNET B
IOCA Part of the AFP/MO:DCA Bundle, along with PTOCA .ica yes O O
JBIG .jbg B
JBIG2 .jbg B
JEDMICS .jed B
JPEG .jpg B B
JPEG2000 Supports 24-bit color and greyscale images .jpg2 O
LINE_DATA B
MIME .eml B
MO:DCA Part of the AFP/MO:DCA Bundle, along with IOCA and PTOCA .mca yes O O
NCR .ncr B
ODF The OpenDocument Format (ODF) Bundle includes ODP, ODS, and ODT .odf D
ODP Part of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) Bundle, along with ODS and ODT;
Requires MS Office Bundle		 .odp yes D
ODS Part of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) Bundle, along with ODP and ODT;
Requires MS Office Bundle		 .ods yes D
ODT Part of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) Bundle, along with ODP and ODS;
Requires MS Office Bundle		 .odt yes D
OOXML Office Open XML (OOXML) currently supports documents with
.docx, .xlsx, .pptx extensions		 yes O
PCL_1 Support for both black & white and color output .pcl yes O B
PCL_5 Support for both black & white and color output .pcl yes O B
PCX .pcx B
PDF Our library supports Type 1 and Type 2 fonts, 
Double-byte, and Composite fonts.		 .pdf yes O B
PNG Ability to specify output resolution to
24-bit, 8-bit, or 1-bit		 .png B B
PPT Sold as part of the MS Office Package
Cannot be purchased individually		 .ppt yes O
PPTX Sold as part of the MS Office Package
Cannot be purchased individually		 .pptx yes O
PTOCA Part of the AFP/MO:DCA Bundle, along with IOCA .pto yes O O
RTF Sold as part of the MS Office Package
Cannot be purchased individually		 .rtf O
SEARCHABLE_PDF .pdf yes O B
SVG .svg  B
TARGA .tga B
TIFF_2D .tif B
TIFF_ABIC .tif O
TIFF_G3_FAX   .tif  B B
TIFF_G4_FAX .tif  B  B
TIFF_G4_FAX_FO .tif  B  B
TIFF_G4_FAX_STRIP .tif  B
TIFF_HUFFMAN .tif  B
TIFF_JBIG .tif  B  B
TIFF_JPEG .tif  B  B
TIFF_JPEG7 .tif  B  B
TIFF LZW .tif  B  B
TIFF_PACK .tif  B  B
TIFF_UNCOMPRESSED .tif  B  B
UTF_8 .txt  B
UTF_16 .txt  B
WMF .wmf   B
XFA Sold as a separate option for PDF
Cannot be purchased individually		 O
XLS Sold as part of the MS Office Package
Cannot be purchased individually		 .xls yes O
XLSX Sold as part of the MS Office Package
Cannot be purchased individually		 .xlsx yes O

*Additional Format Information:

AFP: Customize AFP Fonts For Optimal Display

All of our solutions support Font Maps for AFP allowing users to modify properties of their fonts including font type, point size, color, and style. Font maps enable companies to standardize how AFP documents display by overriding the internal font objects with custom fonts and styles. Fonts maps, created as simple ASCII files, ensure that documents display correctly and allow administrators to control the look of documents.

Important: Test Your Documents and Images

Avoid surprises and delays. Snowbound recommends that, as part of your evaluation process, you test your own sample documents against our products. Though we've been in the document business for 23 years, modifications to document formats occur from time to time. Additionally some documents are created that don't precisely conform to standards. We often can modify our products to handle them, but testing in advance will avoid surprises. Please also note that successfully testing one page of a document, or even a whole document, doesn't mean that other documents aren't created differently. For best outcomes, test as many documents as you can.

Snowbound, unlike most of our competitors, develops its own document rendering technology. If in the rare case you come across a problem or non-conforming document or image, we can often quickly fix it. Simply send us as many of the problem documents as you can.